DOOM SEPT 18 - BRAVE FILLE DE NEIGE GETS DUE REWARD

By Graham Potter | Monday, September 20, 2010

Doomben, September 18, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 3m. Penetrometer: 4.6.
NMW Handicap (Fillies & Mares) - 1010m.
Time: 58.16. Last 600m: 33.36. (Carrying 54kg).
1 Fille De Neige; 2 Chilly Ruler; 3 Evening Vision.
Margins: Nose; Long-head.

The bravery of the five-year-old mare Fille De Neige shone through in a pressurized finish when she stayed on just long enough to thwart the determined efforts of the favourite Chilly Ruler by the narrowest of margins.

The Barry Baldwin trained mare had not visited the winners’ enclosure since December 11, 2009, which, incidentally was the last time that jockey Jim Byrne rode her. Byrne was given the reins again on Saturday and he duly produced the sort of powerful ride which complemented the mares commitment as the joint efforts of jockey and runner translated into a winning formula.

Although it has been nine months between drinks, Baldwin was quick to point out how consistent and honest a horse Fille De Neige has been. In her last ten starts going into Saturday’s race, Fille De Neige had only finished more than 2.50 lengths off the winner on three occasions. On that basis, she was certainly not winning out of turn.

The three runners on the inside of the draw were the best away and Byrne pushed Fille De Neige in-between Maid Ready and Chilly Ruler to press forward into an immediate lead.

Chilly Ruler, the main fancy, settled in second in the early part , tracking the front-runner ahead of Maid Ready and Lotsahula, who raced in third and fourth place respectively.

These runners held their positions in the sweep to the turn. They were joined as a group by Evening Vision who rallied up into fifth position, and these five runners had the race to themselves approaching the home turn as there was a gap of some five to six lengths back to the balance of the field.

Byrne got busier on Fille De Neige on straightening. Chilly Ruler had been racing comfortably just to the outside of the leader until that time and apprentice Brent Evans now asked Chilly Ruler to pick up her game, but Fille De Neige had a kick which was clearly going to test the main fancy.

As the two front-runners joined issue with meaning, Evening Vision saved ground on the turn to move into third place.

Maid Ready began to weaken and was already a spent force halfway up the straight while Lotsahula had shifted out wider on the track and was trying to fight on, but she was seemingly not finding the extra required to effect the result.

That appeared to leave it a race in three as Fille De Neige chased on inside the final 200m with Chilly Ruler in tow and Evening Vision ranging up into contention.

Fille De Neige held a 1.75 length advantage over Chilly Ruler with 100m left to run … and Evening Mist was running on, now only 0,75 lengths behind Chilly Ruler.

Byrne and Fille De Neige were placed under extreme pressure over the concluding stages as both Chilly Ruler and Evening Mist closed up rapidly in the final strides. They had to pull out all the stops to ward off those challenges and they did just that to get home to score a well-deserved victory, albeit that the winning margin was only a nose.

Perhaps the most interesting run of the race away from the main result was that of the fourth placed Lotsahula.

As noted earlier, Lotsahula was seemingly only whacking away mid-straight. The mare however found some sort of second wind over the final 120m and was threatening to figure in the minor placings when her jockey stood up in the saddle some 50m from the line. The margin between third and fourth placing was 0.50 lengths.

By his own admission jockey Raymond Spokes, who was only having his second ride at Doomben, miscalculated the position of the winning post which was the reason he sat up early in the saddle. (See Stewards Report Extract).

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Barry Baldwin: “She’s been knocking on the door. Today she had the good alley and luck went her way for a change.

“The other day Chilly Ruler ran second and she ran fourth. She was outside of Chilly Ruler and now Chilly Ruler was outside her … it’s just the luck of the draw.

“She can just run 1000m. She’s honest. I tell you what … I think this is about the tenth straight time she has run in first five. She is very consistent.

“Mate she just goes for it. Anything she does around the stables or anywhere … track-work … she just wants to get it over and done with. That’s just her pattern and unfortunately we have just got to let her race that way.

Jockey Jim Byrne: “Yeah, look, she went a little bit hard. She is always a little bit slow out of the machines … or has been her last couple.

“She was still a neck away slow today. I gave her a squeeze probably for the first twenty metres and then, you know, she basically just takes over. She just grabs the steel. She just wants to run, you know … just wants to free roll.

“I tried to bring her back underneath me as much as I possibly could without overdoing it on her.

“I knew she was still going to finish the race off because I’ve ridden her before.

“She’s quite tough. The thing with her is that she just wants to go a little bit too fierce but, for that 1000m, she will give you one-hundred percent and she’ll dig in at the end.

“She’ll give you everything she’s got over that 1000, as she did again this time. Thankfully, in the end, the post came quick enough.

“When we went through the line I knew it was tight … possibly a dead-heat or something like that. I wasn’t one-hundred percent confident that I had got there.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Fille De Neige): 5.00 in to 4.40.
Favourite (Chilly Ruler): 3.60 in to 2.40.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Lough Rea was examined by the veterinary surgeon at the barriers after the horse sprung its near-fore plate, resulting in part of the hoof wall being removed. Lough Rea was subsequently declared a late scratching at 1.19 pm on veterinary advice..

Banderin (J. Letherby) was tightened for room on jumping away between Miss Teejay's (J. Taylor) and Drawn To Dubai (M. Palmer), which shifted out. Lotsahula (R. Spokes) and Evening Vision (J. Piper) made heavy contact on jumping away.

Drawn To Dubai hung out through the middle stages of the event.

J. Piper, rider of Evening Vision, was found guilty of a charge of careless riding, in that approaching the 700m, she permitted her mount to shift in when insufficiently clear of Miss Teejay's (J. Taylor), which resulted in Miss Teejay's being taken in on to Drawn To Dubai, which in turn resulted in Drawn To Dubai having to be checked and lose ground.
As a consequence, Banderin, which was following, had to be checked.

J. Piper was suspended from riding in races for a period covered by 7 meetings, to commence at midnight, 27 September, the expiry of a previously incurred suspension at Ballina and to expire at midnight, 8 October 2010.

Stewards opened an inquiry into jockey R. Spokes riding of the 4th placegetter, Lotsahula, over the concluding stages. Jockey Spokes explained that he was having only his second ride at Doomben and had mistaken the inside semaphore board for the winning post and for this reason he relaxed on the horse over the final 50m.

Subsequently, jockey R. Spokes pleaded guilty to a charge under AR137(b) in that he failed to ride his mount right out to the finish line. R. Spokes was suspended from riding in races for a period covered of 2 weeks, to commence at midnight 21 September and to expire at midnight, 5 October 2010.

Evening Vision reared over in the enclosure after being unsaddled. A post-race veterinary examination of Evening Vision revealed the mare had pulled up lame in the near-hindleg. A veterinary clearance for Evening Vision will be required prior to its next race start.

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