THE EAGLE FARM WRAP, MARCH 1
By Graham Potter | Saturday, March 1, 2025
Ten races were decided at Eagle Farm on Saturday March 1.
Only three favourites saluted on the day with the Matthew Hoysted trained Ouroboros being the shortest priced of those, jumping at the restrictive odds of $1.30 and winning untroubled by 1.54 lengths. That was the same winning margin achieved by another favourite Goodlucktome ($3.30), while Set To Shine ($2.35) the last favourite to salute on the day, had to work a bit harder only getting g home by 0.13 lengths. Only one runner, Rising Pacific ($10), saluted at double figure odds.
Six races were decided by a winning margin of less than a length. The biggest winning margin was 2.62 lengths.
On the training front Matthew Hoysted and Tony Gollan both saddled doubles on the day while the Maureen Harry and Jake Capewell winners Arizona Dreaming ($9.50), who made it back-to-back city wins, and Outsmarted ($4.80) shone the light on what smaller stables can achieve. Harry only has one horse in work while Outsmarted was a $2000 on-line purchase which left a large group of owners celebrating their city win in spectacular fashion.
Damien Thorton and Michael Rodd rode two winners apiece. Emily Lang and Courtney Bellamy were the apprentices who saluted on the day, Lang’s win taking her to a very impressive 43 metropolitan winners, now just two winners behind Jimmy Orman in the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership. Orman is currently absent from the Brisbane riding scene having taken up an initial six-week contract to ride in Hong Kong.
Class 3 Handicap (1600m)
In his first run for trainer Lawrie Mayfield-Smith, the six-year-old gelding Imatruestar scored the fourth win of his career and his first victory in more than twelve months.
In-between these wins the son of Star Turn had finished second on three occasions, including in his last start prior to this contest in which he filled the runner-up slot over 1350m at Doomben in his first start in Queensland, a result which helped set up this hard earned victory which came with a step up in distance under the sure guidance of Robbie Dolan in the saddle.
Class 2 Plate (1000m)
Ouroboros, the shortest priced favourite on the day at $1.30, duly won like the good thing the betting suggested he was. The result was never in doubt as the four-year-old son of Harry Angel and jockey Boris Thornton simply proved far too strong for their opposition.
Talk about being a work in progress.
From October 2022 to March 2024, Ouroboros’s raced seven times for his previous trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent (Jnr) only finishing out of the first three places on one occasion, but he also had no less than eight jump-outs and one trial over that period of time.
Ouroboros then relocated to Queensland, and he was given a further three trials before trainer Matthew Hoysted gave him the green light to step up to race action … and the rest as they say is history … a true case of patience being rewarded.
Ouroboros was the first of two winners for Matthew Hoysted, who also saluted with Termagant later in the day.
QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap (1300m)
The well supported lee Freedman trained Profoundly (the $3.10 second favourite) struck with some authority here, taking complete total control of the race to win as he liked by 2.62 lengths, the biggest winning margin on the day.
Backing up from last week, this was a very promising effort from the daughter of Farnan in only her second career start, one in which she clearly showed the benefit taken from her debut outing where she finished out of the placings in a race won by the very useful Sunrays.
Damien Thornton did the honours in the saddle with Profoundly given the rider the first of his two winners on the day. He would also Arizona Dreaming to victory two races later.
QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap (1400m)
The Ciaron Maher trained Goodlucktome certainly looked the part here and duly obliged with the minimum of fuss under Michael Rodd. The son of Written Tycoon was the main fancy, but he still started at the relatively easy to back odds of $3.30, largely because of some concerns surrounding the 60kg he was set to carry.
After Goodlucktome had taken out a Maiden in his fourth start over 1200m at Canterbury in January, Maher had no hesitation in giving Goodlucktome a Group 3 challenge in the Eskimo Pronce Stakes over 1200m at Randwick where he finished fourth behind Public Attention, who would go on to finish close-up behind Broadsiding in the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes in his next start.
Back in this three-year-old handicap, Rodd rode an assured, well measured race to help get the job done with the fact that Goodlucktome was giving the runner-up (Deep Focus) 6.5kg at the weights underling the merit of the win.
This was the first of two winners for Rodd on the day. He would shine again on Outsmarted later in the day.
BENCHMARK 78 Handicap (2206m)
Trainer Maureen Harry has got Arizona Dreaming flying.
A winner at his last start in a BM60 over 2200m at Doomben, Arizona Dreaming prevailed again, this time over 2206m at Eagle Farm, rubber-stamping both his staying prowess and his will to win as he had to fight on all the way to the line to keep the very determined challenge of El Jasor at bay by a narrow margin, with Damien Thornton’s strength in the saddle being a big plus over the closing stages.
Arizona Dreaming has now finished in the first three places in six out of his last eight starts.
BENCHMARK 78 Handicap (1400 METRES)
Third-up and a second go at 1400m this preparation was enough to allow the Tony Gollan trained Set To Shine enough leeway to regain her winning touch to claim the sixth win of her career in only nineteen starts to continue to post a healthy winning strike-rate.
The betting boards arguable mirrored Set To Shine’s progress this preparation. She started at $13 first-up over 1200m (out from $11). She was $3.90 second-up (out from $3.20) and she jumped here at $2.35 (in from $3.10).
It wasn’t the easiest of watches but when Emily Lang got Set To Shine into full stride and attacking the line late, the five-year-old daughter of I Am Invincible did enough to turn her performance into a winning effort.
BENCHMARK 68 Handicap (1300m)
Here’s one for the notebook … a horse with a near perfect record and a great background story.
After this Eagle Farm success, the lightly raced, Jake Capewell trained Outsmarted is now a winner of four out of five starts in a career that dates back to December 2023.
The four-year-old son of Written Tycoon kicked off by winning two out of two for trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexlo before moving on briefly to the stable of Paul Shaler, where he did not race. Instead, he was purchased on-line by a group of owners for … wait for it … $2000, and entrusted inti the care of Jake Capewell, who gave the chestnut two starts on the country circuit at Warwick (fir a third place and a win), before confidently lining up this metropolitan assignment.
Vlad Duric had been booked for the ride, but Duric was injured in a fall at the Sunshine Coast the night before, so Michael Rodd was handed the reins.
Outsmarted ($4.80) still had it all to do at the top of the straight, but when Rodd brought his mount to the outside, Outsmarted responded to the task at hand, ranging up when it mattered most to land a clearcut win, a result which, quite understandably, sparked the biggest owner’s celebration of the day.
As a $2000 purchase, score one for the underdog!
BENCHMARK 90 Handicap (1000m)
The Lindsay Hatch trained Wanda Rox, second favourite at $3.80, outgunned the $3.10 favourite Compelling Truth in a spirited two-way battle to the line, with apprentice Courtney Bellamy playing an important role in the outcome … both with her ride and the weight advantage she brought with her 3kg claim.
Wanda Rox was winning for the fifth time in five starts first-up and she remains unbeaten over the Eagle Farm 1000m trip (three wins from three starts).
As a consequence she has now advanced her career record to an impressive ten wins from seventeen starts.
Class 6 Plate (1200m)
Putting back-to-back wins together is always a good sign … and when a horse does that for the second time in his career and progresses his race record to five wins from only nine starts with three second places … well, the trainer certainly knows he has something to work with.
That is the case with the Matthew Hoysted trained Termagant who followed up his win over 1110m at Doomben on February 8 with another stout effort when stepping up to 1200m and doing the work required to see off the strong challenge of her market rival and race favourite Millane ($2.35) by a narrow margin. Termagant started at $2.60.
Nikita Berriman has ridden Termagant in both of her last two wins.
Termagant was Matthew Hoysted’s second winner on the card.
Class 6 Handicap (1600m)
Trainer Tony Gollan rounded off the day by claiming victory with Rising Pacific in the last race.
The five-year-old son of Preferment was the lesser fancy of the two Gollan runners … starting at $10 as opposed to Tenzing who started at $4.80. Tenzing had beaten Rising Pacific home last time, but the latter now enjoyed a significant 3.5kg turnaround at the weights here, which obviously contributed to Rising Pacific being able to reverse that result.
Rising Pacific has now won two out of three starts this preparation, firstly over 1400m and then taking the step up to 1600m in his stride.
So, this was Rising Pacific’s day and he arrived with some aplomb under Andrew Mallyon who is having a storming metropolitan season, his current haul of thirty-four winners already well past the twenty one and a half winners he recorded for the entire previous season.
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