LEMON DUCHESS'S FIGHTING QUALITIES AGAIN TO THE FORE AS SHE LANDS HER EIGHTH CAREER SUCCESS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, October 2, 2022

Victories don’t come much sweeter for Jasmine Cornish than when they are achieved aboard the very game Lemon Duchess … one of Cornish’s favourite horses … and she got that particular sweet taste of victory again when Lemon Duchess won a BM80 Handicap over 1400m at the Sunshine Coast on October 2.

Lemon Duchess, who is from Cornish’s home stable, being trained by her dad Greg Cornish, had given Jasmine Cornish her home-town Cup win when daughter of Tycoon Ruler took out the Beaudesert Cup on a heavy 10 track back in July.

That was Lemon Duchess’s seventh career victory and, at the time it formed part of a run of results which produced four wins and one runner-up finish (in town) over a period of six races from March 31 until that Beaudesert Cup win on July 9.

In her three starts subsequent to that, Lemon Duchess had failed to take any competitive part in race at Ipswich after rearing at the start (an application to have Lemon Duchess declareda non-runner was denied by stewards).

She had then finished a highly creditable second at Doomben in a No Metro Win Handicap when only run down late over 1350m … before finishing fourth in a BM75 Handicap at the Gold Coast in her final run before heading to the Sunshine Coast.

Relatively easy to back at $4.80 in an open betting race, Cornish played to her mount’s strength by taking Lemon Duchess into an immediate lead … the premise being that Cornish knew how strong the five-year-old mare can be from the front … and how difficult she can make it for any other runner to pass her, given her inherent fighting, never lie down, qualities.

Very comfortable on the heavy 8 track, Lemon Duchess held a two-length lead at the 1000m mark. That margin was down to a length on straightening, but Lemon Duchess was still full of running.

She had to be … because a wall of horses were lining up to challenge either side of Lemon Duchess but, in the end, the tight contest between the chasers came down to only being for a battle for the minor share of the prize-money as Lemon Duchess frustrated all of their efforts as she kept going to seal victory by a 0.40 length margin.

Underlining the pressure Lemon Duchess was under is the fact that only one length separated the first six runners across the line.

In shrugging off the other contenders, Lemon Duchess took her race record to eight wins and six places from thirty-two starts with $188 020 banked in prize-money.

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