Fans of the movie Shawshank Redemption will no doubt have been following the career of three year-old Hinchinbrook gelding Dufresne quite closely and after missing narrowly at Randwick last Wednesday, he atoned at Rosehill today with an impressive first win.
For anyone sadly unfamiliar with The Shawshank Redemption and the character Andy Dufresne, click here.
Trained by Anthony Cummings and ridden by Jason Collett, Dufresne made full use of barrier one to surge through and lead before kicking clear down the straight to win the 1500m maiden by two and a half lengths as a hot favourite.
Runner-up Antonio Giovanni hit the line well for second and holds an entry for the Group I Victoria Derby.
With a win and two seconds from just four starts, Dufresne has banked over $41,000 with the promise of more to come.
Dufresne was a $170,000 Inglis Premier purchase for his trainer from the Yarraman Park draft and runs for Cummings in partnership with Yarraman Park, who also bred him.
He is a half-brother to Group III placed Pleiades and Glissade, the dam of Group I MRC Thousand Guineas winner Flit, being the fifth winner from five foals to race from Zabeel’s Group III winner Steflara.
