SCST SEPT 20 - TRUESDALE’S WINNING COMEBACK

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Sunshine Coast, September 20, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 2m.
Class 1 Handicap - 1400m. Time: 1-25.11
1 Truesdale; 2 Status King; 3 Craiglea King.

Bryan Guy turned in a good training performance here when he brought the six-year-old Truesdale back from a nine month, injury enforced layoff to score a highly creditable first-up victory.

Jockey Damian Browne had Truesdale in the second half of the field early on and he kept the gelding going comfortably along the rail until the turn where he straightened in sixth position. Browne initially kept Truesdale hard on the rail until he ran up onto the heels of one the early pace-setters Mulsanne approaching the 200m.

At this stage Status King hit the lead in full cry down the centre of the track with Craiglea King in hot pursuit and Browne had to angle Truesdale out across the heels of Mulsanne and accelerate if he was to stay in contention.

Truesdale responded to the challenge with conviction and moved forward to join issue with Status King in a stride for stride battle before he edged ahead close to the line to secure an eye-catching come-back win.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Bryan Guy: “He was with (trainer) Cliffie Brown in Melbourne and then Cliffie went to Singapore. Cliff said he thought it was one of the better horses he trained. We brought him up. We gave him two runs and he broke down. He did a fetlock joint ... suspensories ... he’s had everything. So we decided we were not going to ... well, actually, he was finished.

“Then out of the blue (owner) Ronnie (Wanless) rung me up and said, oh you better give this horse one more try. I said, I thought he was finished. He said, no, he’s ready to go again. I said, ok.

“We brought him back in again and he has been perfect. We’ve had no problems with him. He’s been really good. So to get him back and going again has been good, you know. He’s a six-year-old and he has only had nine starts.

“We were a bit worried because as you can see he is still gross and he will improve a bit. But, you know, 1400m first-up (after nine months) and it is a testing 1400m here, so he has done a good job.”

Jockey Damian Browne: “Yeah look, we got a lovely run in transit. The race was pretty well run to suit the horse. The opening sort of came for him when they needed to. Look, he’ll take a lot of improvement out of that run. He probably just came to the end of his run just short of the line, which is fair enough for his first run back from a long layoff. Like I said, he’ll take a lot of improvement out of that.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Truesdale): 3.80 out to 4.60.
Favourite (Mulsanne): 2.80 out to 3.20. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Ambiguity (J. Taylor) jumped away awkwardly and lost ground. Kinjirock (S. Bogenhuber) was slow to begin. Approaching the 700m, Kinjirock (S. Bogenhuber), which was inclined to over-race, had to be checked off the heels of Craiglea King (L. Appo).

At the entrance to the straight, Kinjirock had to be steadied off the heels of Deniro Muy Grande and as a result shifted wider on the track. Kinjirock hung in in the home straight, resulting in S. Bogenhuber being unable to ride that gelding out in her normal manner. Deniro Muy Grande (S. Holcombe) raced wide without cover throughout the race.

L. Appo, rider of Craiglea King, was reprimanded for use of his whip over the final 200m, in that his whip arm was above shoulder height.

Jockey M. Radecker was questioned regarding her riding of Pull The Wool, particularly in the middle stages where she applied significant pressure to Mulsanne (M. Wood). M. Radecker explained that it was her intention to race on the pace today and after riding Pull The Wool forward in the early stages she was unable to restrain the gelding when racing outside the leader. Stewards accepted M. Radecker's explanation.

A post-race veterinary examination of Mulsanne failed to reveal any obvious abnormalities.