DOOM JAN 30 - KINSMATE OUTLASTS TABULATE

By Graham Potter | Monday, February 1, 2010

Doomben, January 30, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 3.5m.
1MW Handicap - 2020m. Time: 2-04.87. (Carrying 56.5kg).
1 Kinsmate; 2 Tabulate; 3 Mr Nicholas.

The Neville Petersen trained Kinsmate, a veteran of sixty starts, produced a sustained finishing effort to take the measure of Tabulate when it mattered most to score by a long-head.

Jockey Glen Colless settled the gelding in sixth place in the back straight and Kinsmate was still in that position when Tabulate gave him a wind-burn when streaking past him on the outside. Tabulate had made that early move from last place with apprentice Alan Chau gambling on the fact that his mount would be able to maintain a long run all the way to the line.

Colless wasn’t going to try and second guess Chau’s intentions. He reacted immediately to Tabulate’s early forward push as if it were a real threat and quickly set Kinsmate out after Tabulate, following the same route through into the race.

It was good thing he did because, on straightening, Tabulate was in the lead and kicking on strongly two lengths in front of Kinsmate. Kinsmate halved that deficit by the 200m mark to be one length in arrears and he kept up that momentum to get onto equal terms with tabulate with 100m left to run.

Now, it was simply a race in two. Kinsmate looked set to go on with it, but Tabulate showed late resistance to ensure that Colless had to keep Kinsmate working all the way to the line. In the end Kinsmate was good enough to get the job done.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Jockey Glen Colless: “Yeah, he drew the good gate ... got the right run, you know. When apprentice Chau (on Tabulate) took off about the 700 and whipped around them he sort of half gave me a cart into the race.

“He was going to win pretty easy and I gave him one around the tail and he half pulled up. So I thought, well I’m not going to do that again and I had to half coax him across the line. He’s one of those old horses.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Kinsmate): 7.00 steady.
Favourite (Under The Counter): 4.20 in to 3.80 out to 4.00. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Kinsmate (G. Colless) and Under The Counter (L. Cassidy) made contact on jumping away. Mr Nicholas (J. Bowditch) was slow to begin.

River Perfume (M. Hellyer) shifted out under pressure over the final 200m.

Jockey L. Cassidy, the rider of Under The Counter, reported that after beginning only fairly he was obliged to settle the horse further back than he intended as he was concerned that if he persisted with an attempt to secure a forward position he may have been trapped three wide.

L. Cassidy explained that mid-race he was satisfied with the tempo of the race, however when the pace slackened near the 900m he considered progressing forward around Royal Hope (J. Watkins), which was racing forward of him in a loose two-wide position.

L. Cassidy added that rather than risk Royal Hope shifting out and forcing him wider, he elected to maintain his position, however when Tabulate (A. Chau) progressed forward and around him, he moved forward to a position to the inside of Royal Hope, resulting in him then being held up behind Kinsmate. Shortly after My Flight (S. Katsidis) then shifted out forward of him resulting in him being held up and unable to improve until well into the home straight.

L. Cassidy further added that in retrospect it would have been a better option to go wider on the track rather than progressing to the inside of Royal Hope.

Stewards sought an explanation from trainer N. Petersen regarding the improved performance of Kinsmate today compared to its unplaced run at its previous start. Mr Petersen explained that the distance of today's race was more suitable for Kinsmate than the 1600m of its previous start on
January 23. Stewards noted the explanation.