Foster, Fanicio claim Boulder Cup

Bunbury trainer Simon Foster turned the tables on counterpart Stephen Rowe on Sunday with Fanicio’s tense victory in the $110,000 Goldline Distributors-Boulder Cup Over 1760m.

Fanicio had finished second to the Rowe-trained Barnsley Lad a fortnight earlier in the Coolgardie Cup, but hit back to reverse the placings.

The margin was a half-head, with Fanicio dashing Barnsley Lad’s hopes of capturing the $100,000 Triple Nugget Bonus for gallopers that take out the Coolgardie, Boulder and Kalgoorlie Cups treble.

“Any win is a good one — especially when they fight it out in the last 200m like they did,” Foster said.

“It was two horses having a really good crack and our horse was lucky enough to stick his head out at the right time.

“He (Fanicio) seems to be the horse that every time you up the bar, he raises it and jumps it a little bit. He’s still reasonably immature as a racehorse and still does a few things wrong.”

Foster only arrived in WA from Queensland about 18 months ago in pursuit of greater opportunities.

“It’s hard to win feature races anywhere,” Foster said.

“I was lucky enough to win one in my first season back in Queensland and this is right up there with that. It’s definitely been the right move.”

Amelias Dancer was third.

The seven-event card got under way with Jarrad Noske saluting aboard the Brad Graham-trained Blackspace in a maiden over 1300m.

Sarabi, for Neville Parnham, stormed home from fourth at the turn to edge out Walk By My Side by a neck in race two over 1200m.

Noske completed a double when The Key Cutter won the third, a 1400m handicap.