FLEM SEPT 04 - ZOOMIN MAKES IT TWO ON THE TROT

By Taron Clarke | Sunday, September 5, 2010

Flemington, September 4, 2010.
Track - Slow 7. Rail - True. Penetrometer 5.02.
Open Handicap - 2000m.
Time: 2-07.52. 600m Sectional: 37.90. (Carrying 54.5kg).
1 Zoomin; 2 Miles Above; 3 Dark Note.
Margins: 2.0L x 1.8L.

Mick Kent’s galloper Zoomin was able to post back to back wins in the metropolitan area after an easy victory at Flemington on Saturday. Three weeks earlier the Pupil gelding finally broke through for a well-deserved victory at Caulfield with jockey Glen Boss in the saddle.

With Boss suspended, Craig Williams took the mount and proved a more than adequate replacement as he steered the six-year-old to an easy victory on his preferred soft ground.

Form the 2000 metre start Williams settled the Cranbourne trained galloper down in midfield, spotting the leader six lengths.

The speed slackened at the 700 metre mark and Williams was able to pop out three and four deep on the son of Pupil and make a move into the race.

Zoomin and Williams balanced up in the early part of the straight only two lengths off the leader with plenty to offer.

At the 400 metre mark Zooming, who was out in the centre of the track was asked for an effort by Williams and the gelding quickly raced up and struck the front from Miles Above who had elected to rail through along the fence and save ground.

Under strong whip riding from Williams, Zoomin responded to the urgings and over the concluding stages he drew away to score a confortable victory over Miles Above and Dark Note.

The victory took Zoomin’s wet track record to seven wins from seventeen starts and four minor placing’s and with a wet start to the spring forecasted, there may be more wins in store.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Mick Kent: “He’s starting to get there. When we bought him we thought he would make a nice handy horse.

“It took us a little while to work him out, but he has hit his straps now.

“He travelled really well today….he looked the winner a long way out I thought.

“He is a noted soft tracker and that track has softened up a fair bit, so that was always going to come into play.

“It’s pretty even, I think it’s got a good cover of grass and it’s holding together well but they’re certainly not going to run any time.

“A good friend of mine who is an agent picked him out a while ago and it’s always good to have a horse that can run in these staying races. We are always on the lookout for them and he sort of fitted our bill.

“Our targets going to be the Ansett Classic which is a mile and a half, which I think is where he needs to be and … who knows from there. We might find a soft country cup for him and that will just about do him.”

Jockey Craig Williams: “They went a bit quicker than what we thought they would and he didn’t lay up any closer, so we just bided our time and got into a nice rhythm.

“Then when we came into to it they were stopping and starting in front and one thing Mick (Kent) said to me ‘his problem in the past is that he has been getting out-sprinted and he loses concentration every now and again’.

“I just felt that when I had him concentrating well I had to keep going. It might have been a bit early, but he is a superior stayer and we used that to our advantage today.

“Blinkers really woke him up and then I’d say the confidence from the other day … he’s now improved another couple of lengths from the other day I believe from the way that he felt to me.

“I still think he has got further improvement because he was even waiting a little bit where he was and I had to be really firm with him the whole way up the straight.

“The way the horses are racing, the times they’re running and the way that they feeling at the end of the race actually feels like a heavy track. It’s taking a lot out of them and they’re good horses, so I am happy my horse handled it again.

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Zoomin): 3.50 out to 5.00.
Favourite (Miles Above) 3.80 out to 5.00 into 4.80. Finished second.

Horse to Follow: Terang trained galloper Miles Above saved good ground around the home turn and in the early part of the straight. The downside of saving the ground was that he was forced to race on the clearly inferior going, hard up against the fence. On a rain affected track and down in the weights, Miles Above may be able to bob up in a second tier staying event.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Skybee jumped away awkwardly.

Humaway raced wide without cover before gaining a position outside the leader (Gorky Park (NZ)) near the 1000m. Streetfighter was then obliged to race wide from the 1000m.

Near the 600m Fairygem (NZ) shifted out to improve inconveniencing Macedonian (NZ).
Miles Above was unable to improve its position from the 600m when held up for clear running until entering the straight near the 500m.

Phaze Action was held up for some distance rounding the home turn and failed to obtain clear running until after passing the 200m.

Dark Note also had difficulty in obtaining clear running rounding the home turn.

D Dunn reported that Streetfighter did not handle the track conditions today.

D Nikolic was issued with a severe reprimand for his conduct in the scales area prior to the running of this particular race after having been requested by the Stewards to leave the jockey’s room and confer with connections in the mounting yard prior to the race.

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