Ingratiating back to his best in G3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield

The addition of a tongue protector and a masterful ride by world-class jockey Blake Shinn helped classy sprinter Ingratiating return to his best form at Caulfield on Saturday, 22 July in the G3 Bletchingly Stakes.

Slightly disappointing when fifth at the same track two weeks earlier, the real Ingratiating travelled sweetly behind the leaders on the fence before peeling out and reeling in General Beau and It’sourtime to win the 1,200m feature by a half-length in 1min 9.53sec.

It was the four-year-old stallion’s fourth victory at Stakes level and took his record to five wins and eight placings from 22 starts for prize money and bonus earnings of $1,907,240 under Godolphin head trainer James Cummings. 

Ingratiating had been placed three times at G1 level and the son of Darley stallion Frosted lifted Cummings’ Black-Type victories for the current season to a lofty 56.

The trainer wasn’t at Caulfield but stable representative Tian Pozman was happy to talk-up the winner.

“He’s a lovely horse and he does have fine (career) form,” she told Racing.com.

“It’s fantastic so see him come here today and put his best foot forward and show us what he’s got. 

“He jumped really well and Blake just kept him comfortable and he went through his gears and finished off really well.

“He had a lovely turn of foot, had a tongue protector on, which he worked in this week, and went beautifully in it and was a lot more comfortable.

“A fantastic effort and a fantastic effort by Blake, the Sydney team and the Melbourne team.”

Ingratiating impressed Shinn with his professionalism and the globe-trotting rider said he was never concerned during the race.

“He’s a beautiful brute to ride, obviously a stallion but there doesn’t seem to be any complications about him and he’s a very genuine horse,” the jockey said.

“I thought trying to give him clear galloping room at the right time might have been advantageous to him.

“I elected to get off the second horse’s back to give him that opportunity, but he would have probably won regardless.

“He was travelling that well in running I didn’t want to take any chances, and it was just a great win in these blue colours.

“They (Godolphin) have been a great supporter of mine since I’ve been back in Australia and hopefully we can build on it next season.”

Ingratiating was the second leg of a winning double for Cummings and Shinn at Caulfield after Va Via (Astern) continued her excellent Melbourne form this time in work with victory in the Stow Storage Solutions Handicap over 1,200m for three-year-olds.