FAST TALKING STILL WALKING THE WALK

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 29, 2023

He is a gem isn’t he!

Just three days before turning nine years of age, the David Vandyke trained Fast Talking outgunned his rivals for the eleventh time in his career to land an Open Handicap over 1600m at Eagle farm on July 29.

Only seven races faced the starter with Fast Talking marked up as third favourite at $4.40.

The son of Walking Or Dancing came into the race second-up, after catching the eye when resuming with a close-up third place finish two weeks earlier … in the same class at the same track.

This time, with the benefit of that run and the subtle step up in distance from 1400m to a more preferable 1600m trip (Fast Talking has in fact won up to 2200m), Fast Talking showed the improvement required to be able to add to his list of victories.

Fast Talking did face a fair task on paper with the gelding having to concede weight to all of his rivals (between 1.5kg and 7kg), but Kyle Wilson-Taylor, who had won on Fast Talking on four previous occasions, again showed his affinity with the gelding, positioning him right where he wanted to be … just a little over a length back, tracking the speed in the early part.

Wilson-Taylor was then comfortable enough to allow Fast Talking an easy gallop as he slipped back to fourth place, now some three lengths off the leader at the field approached the start of the sweep to the home turn.

Wilson-Taylor remained patient on the approach to the home turn and Fast Talking straightened three wide with a little over three lengths to make up.

Fast Talking didn’t rev up immediately, but rather methodically kept coming at the leaders to the point where he joined the leading line with 200m left to run, and he then maintained his momentum to gradually pull away from his opposition over the concluding stages to score by a length.

Taking into account the weight difference with his rivals, Wilson-Taylor certainly played his part here in rating Fast Talking in the kind of measured manner which would give the eight-year-old his best chance of victory and the horse also did everything right, like the seasoned professional he is.

Another nice notch on the belt with win number eleven taking Fast Talking’s prize-money earnings past the $500 000 mark.

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