The Tony McEvoy trained colt was nowhere to be seen with a furlong to run, locked up near the fence behind horses, but under an inspired ride from Dwayne Dunn, Royal Symphony extricated himself and prepared to pounce.
He lengthened stride and stretched out hard to nail Éclair Sunshine on the line to win the 1400 metre contest by a head in the manner of a horse that really knows his job.
"How he got out of that, just goes to show how good a horse he is," said Dwayne Dunn.
"Good horses have that turn of foot and he has it!"
With prizemoney topping $200,000, Royal Symphony has now won four from four
with this win his second at Listed level."That was very special," said a relieved Tony McEvoy, who confessed to thinking his star colt could not win from where he was.
"I had that 'he can't win' moment, but what he did late was what special horses do.
"I'd have half a dozen horses at home that work better than him, but he's a game day horse, when the bell rings, he's there."
The Group I MRC Caulfield Guineas over 1600 metres on October 14 is the primary goal for Royal Symphony.
"I just want to see how he recovers in the next ten minutes to see whether he needs another run or is ready to step straight up to a mile," McEvoy added.
Bred by Wingrove Park, Royal Symphony runs for a big group of very happy owners, who knocked back some huge offers for the horse from Hong Kong, so will they be thrilled with his spring return.
Royal Symphony is a half-brother to stakes-placed Hoodlum and is the eighth winner and last foal of Naturalist, a three-quarter sister-in-blood to multiple Group I winner Naturalism and Queensland Oaks winner Crystal Palace, so has depth in his pedigree to suggest the sky is the limit.
He is one of 16 stakes-winners for Domesday, who stands at Aquis Queensland at a fee of $8,800.
