*Article by Carl Di Iorio for racing.com
The good news continued for recently elected Richmond Football Club president John O’Rourke, part-owning Sandown Lakeside maiden winner Shanghai Venture on Wednesday.
O’Rourke, a long-serving board member of the AFL team, succeeded Richmond’s first female club president Peggy O’Neal at their Annual General Meeting on Monday.
The Brian McGrath-trained Shanghai Venture ($3.90), with Blake Shinn wearing Richmond’s colours of black with a gold sash, led throughout from barrier one in the LockettLED.au Plate (1200m) for three-year-olds.
“He (O'Rourke) has been a massive supporter of the stable from day one, he’s supported me before I had even bowled a ball,” McGrath said.
“He’s a great bloke with his brother Steve and business partner Ray Wilson. My old man (Jim McGrath) bred the filly as well, it’s a good result.”
Shanghai Venture, a daughter of Akeed Mofeed, notched her maiden win at the seventh attempt having placed at her previous two starts in metropolitan maidens.
“Blake thought possibly leading wasn’t the right thing to do on the Hillside (when second last start), we still kept that up our sleeve today on Lakeside,” McGrath said.
“Ideally we would have liked to have got a drag into it, but the start before (third at Sandown Lakeside) she had a terrible draw, we went back to last and she rattled home that day.
“She did a good job that day and this is her first preparation, it’s great she got the win,” McGrath said.
Shanghai Venture provided McGrath with his seventh metropolitan success, all at midweek level, with four of them at Sandown Hillside and three at Sandown Lakeside.
The AFL theme of winning owners continued when the Matt Cumani-trained Tycoon Bec ($6), part-owned by former West Coast and Carlton player Chris Judd, won her benchmark 70 handicap over 2100 metres.