Favourite Gringotts wins Sydney’s Big Dance at Randwick Racecourse on Melbourne Cup day

Favourite Gringotts has gone back-to-back in Randwick’s Listed $3 million Big Dance (1600m), again beating Vivvy Air for the second year running and giving his trainer Ciaron Maher the race trifecta.

Sitting just off the pace, the six-year-old pulled hard under Nash Rawiller but powered through a narrow gap at the 200m and surged clear for a comfortable success.

The victory aboard the $2.90 was Rawiller’s third successive of the afternoon following earlier triumphs on Carbonados ($2.70f) and Equerry ($7).

“He saw me coming - he did his best to hold his line - and he actually shut the gate,” Rawiller said.

“But to my bloke’s credit, I was full of running then. I was mindful of how I rode him the other day and I just thought if I can contain energy the whole way, he’s going to be quite explosive, and he was.

“He gave me the feel of a really good horse. He’s been terrifically placed and off a setback earlier in the preparation, this is a lovely race for a horse like him to win carrying just 62kg.

“$3 million, you’ve got to go a long way to find that sort of prizemoney, and I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.

“I knew the last time things didn’t pan out quite well enough for us to win the race but I think by having the ride on him, I was a different jockey today.

“I always felt like the winner. Little idiosyncrasies I learned the other day, we were able to put into place today and the horse was really explosive.”