ELEUTHERA SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT

By Graham Potter | Friday, September 17, 2021

Call it redemption! … setting the record straight … whatever you like. This was Eleuthera getting a just reward for her persistence.

In her second last start prior to this run in a Class 1 Handicap over 1800m at Eagle Farm, Eleuthera has raced into contention on the turn at Toowoomba, coming from some seven lengths back, but she had absolutely no luck from the moment the field straightened.

First, Angela Jones tried to angle Eleuthera further out on the track to escape the log-jam in front of her, but she was held in and couldn’t pursue that option. So, Jones switched Eleuthera back in … striking another no-go zone … then back out again, again with no real success … and the duo quickly ran out of time to be able to gain a winning result, ultimately going to the line totally untested.

Then, in her last start at the Sunshine Coast, some would argue that Eleuthera (who was second across the line after suffering severe interference) was robbed of a victory in the stewards’ room when jockey Kyle Wilson-Taylor’s protest against the winner was dismissed.

The best way for connections of Eleuthera to overcome that very real disappointment was to send to the four-year-old daughter of Red Dazzler out in winning trim for her next start, and that is exactly when the Sears Training Partnership did as Eleuthera powered home, once again under the determined urgings of Kyle Wilson-Taylor, to hold off the $3.15 favourite Evita La Vie by 0.20 lengths.

In the race in which Eleuthera did not get the decision in the steward’s room, her starting price was $3.60. At Eagle Farm she won at the juicy odds of $15, so those punters who kept the faith will have felt that justice had been very well served.

Wilson-Taylor was happy to let Eleuthera race just worse than midfield down the back stretch. Eleuthera held that position at a comfortable gallop until Wilson-Taylor asked her to improve on the approach to the home and she did so to straighten, four wide, in clear air, only a couple of lengths off the lead.

Wilson-Taylor got more vigorous early in the straight and Eleuthera again responded as asked and she gradually worked her way to the head of affairs inside the final 150m. She had to show some courage in finishing the race off though as the $21 chance Nitroglycerine was snapping at the heels of Eleuthera all the way to the line, while the well fancied Evita La Vie was also running on well enough to threaten along the inside.

Eleuthera and Kyle Wilson-Taylor were in no mood to be denied this time though and this time they did indeed get the chocolates, winning by a 0.20 length margin.

The official stewards’ report did state that Eleuthera had hung out under pressure in the home straight and that Nitroglycerine had been forced wider in the home straight, but that movement of horses did not result in any protest being fired in … that would have been a bit hard for the connections of Eleuthera to take … but, with the ‘all clear’ came the confirmation that Eleuthera now had her elusive second career race win in the bank.
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On the same card another Sears trained runner, the lightly raced three-year-old Single Dezire, provided a very useful supporting act for Eleuthera when claiming a creditable third place result behind Karaoke Queen in a Three-Year-Old Fillies Maiden Plate over 1000m … a promising enough effort when coming home just 1.50 lengths behind the winner in only her third career start.

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