FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - PERON DOES ME PROUD!
By Michael Cahill | Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Five-time Group 1 winning jockey Michael Cahill is the latest addition to the HRO blogging stable. Apart from Australia, Michael has ridden in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia, South Korea and Mauritius. He brings thirty-three years of race riding experience to the game and with this greater all-around experience Michael is superbly qualified to give insightful commentary on the racing scene. Michael’s personal blog, ‘From my perspective’ will appear every Wednesday on HRO.
Ipswich Cup day turned out to be a good day for me.
Peron is one of my favourite horses. She has been a good filly to me and has just got a beautiful temperament.
We identified her early … that she had above average ability … and that view has been vindicated. She has just kept going well. It remains to be seen what level she will reach, but she is doing virtually everything asked of her at this stage.
I’m not really sure how close she came to being scratched form the Gai Waterhouse on Saturday.
She was nominated at Rosehill as well. She was looking for a dry track, but probably the fact that she drew a bit badly down there too might have helped sway the decision a little bit.
Either way, clearly running at Ipswich proved to be the right decision.
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Peron was actually a bit fresh on Saturday. She jumped into the bridle and positioned up a bit closer than I would normally have expected her too.
She was travelling quite well. I was following Whateverwhenever and we had a good run into the race until about probably the 550m when I got shunted out a bit when the rider on Skating On Ice made his move.
It just knocked Peron off balance and that was a moment of real concern for me at that stage. It sort of took the wind out of Peron’s sails for a stride or two and it took her until the home turn to fully recover from it.
When she did, she got balanced again and I liked the way she put the result beyond doubt pretty quickly.
She does have a tendency to lay in a bit so I always carry my whip in the right hand but when I hit her a couple of times with the right and she wanted to get out, so I changed my whip to my left hand. When I hit her once with the left … that’s when she really responded.
As I say, you can’t argue with the way she finished off.
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Peron has been well handled by John Thompson. They have done a great job with her.
They have taken her along quietly without putting any pressure on her at all.
A Group 1 … the Tatts Tiara … beckons now. John is going to see how she trains on during the week. If she pleases him, she’ll take her place in the race.
Again we will be looking at the weather. The forecast looks pretty good. We’d like it to be firm so that she can show what she can really do. You know the slow track … she’s still good, but not at her best.
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Miss Bradbury was my other winner on Ipswich Cup day.
I’d only ridden her once before when I won a race on her on New Year’s day at the Gold Coast. She won on protest there, but she was a different mare on Saturday.
She was cantering back in the field coming to the turn and I was trying to get out into that perceived fast lane, which I was able to do and she really let go well.
I was confident before the turn actually. I could see a number of runners ahead of me were all under pressure and she was still going well.
She also looked very well in the yard. That’s the best I’ve seen her.
She was impressive.
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My Cup ride ended in disappointment.
Secret Garden got too far back from the barrier and just had to come too wide.
She didn’t have much chance the way her race panned out.
It is best to forget she went around really.
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Was there in fact a ‘fast lane’ at Ipswich on Saturday?
I rode Dalton in the first race and I stayed on the rail. At the time I had a gut feeling that the rail wasn’t too bad.
When you have a look at it the rail didn’t mark as much as anywhere from two to about five off the rail did. Once you got outside that it seemed better again.
A couple of horses did win on the rail but I think if you were not hard against the rail you needed to be out pretty wide.
It works well when you are the horse that gets the benefit of a clear rails runs but, as I said last week, only one runner is likely to get that on any day, if any.
They were big fields on Saturday. Not everybody can get into that position and the risk in trying to get there is enormous.
At Ipswich, when the rail is true, it is generally a safe bet that more winners will be coming towards the centre of the track.
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So it’s back to Eagle Farm this Saturday for the Tatts Tiara.
Hope you all come out for the last Group 1 of the season.
It should be a good one.
Till next week,
Michael
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