DOOM SEPT 25 - ROTHERA RUBBER-STAMPS HIS CLASS

By Graham Potter | Monday, September 27, 2010

Doomben, September 25, 2010.
Track - Slow 7. Rail - out 5m. Penetrometer: 5.20.
Open Handicap - 1110m.
Time: 1-10.50. Last 600m: 35.52. (Carrying 54.5kg).
1 Rothera; 2 Ulladulla; 3 One Lickety Split.
Margins: 0.50; 2.00.

The Ben Currie trained Rothera underlined his class when he came from a long way back to shoot down the front-running Ulladulla to score an emphatic win, first-up after a four month layoff at Doomben on Saturday.

The smart chestnut was last seen in action when chasing home into a creditable fourth placing behind Metal Bender in the Hollindale at the Gold Coast on May 8. Metal Bender subsequently went on to win the Group 1 Doomben Cup in his next start, which was his final outing of that campaign.

In three starts since resuming, Metal Bender has won the Warwick Stakes, finished second in the Chelmsford Stakes (both are Group 2 events) and finished third behind the mighty So You Think in the Group 1 Underwood.

Clearly Rothera still has some way to go to make his presence felt in that level of competition, but his first flexing of the muscles on Saturday did more than banish the cobwebs. It showed he has the potential to rise to bigger things and Saturday’s result was good enough for his connections to pencil in plans based on the progress he seems likely to make.

Also of note was the fact that Rothera’s success was the first Saturday win in Brisbane for jockey Brent Evans since the rider returned from a twelve month stint in Melbourne.

Evans left Queensland with multiple jockey titles under his belt and with a bright future beckoning, but his career stalled in the latter stages of his Melbourne stay.

It is not quite back to square one for the talented rider, but he does have to re-establish his credentials and Saturday’s win is an important building block in that process.

Evans took Rothera back in the early stages. The five-year-old settled at a relaxed gallop in second last place, some seven lengths behind the free-running Ulladulla who had surged to the lead after matching strides with Mister Celestial over the first 150m.

Mister Celestial settled in second spot with Ulladulla’s market rival One Lickety Split tracking the speed in third place.

Ulladulla held a commanding lead on straightening. Mister Celestial was quick to cry enough and One Lickety Split went past that one to chase the leader. At that stage Rothera had not improved his position and he was racing in-between runners, still well out of his ground.

The threat from One Lickety Split did not materialise as he did no more than whack away mid-straight and all the time Ulladulla was kicking on strongly, trying to make every post a winning one.

By the 200m the Kelly Schweida trained runner was all of four lengths clear of his rivals.

Back in the pack however, Rothera was just finding his feet. Given more rein by Evans, Rothera immediately responded to the challenge. He pushed his way in-between the tiring Mister Celestial and Patties Mate, and began to unleash a strong finishing effort.

The long-striding gelding made light work of getting through the going as he moved into contention. Rothera was still three lengths behind Ulladulla with only 100m left to race, but the complexion of the race was now changing to be very much in the swooper’s favour.

At the same time Rothera built race-winning momentum, Ulladulla started to feel the pinch as his bold early effort began to take its toll. This resulted Rothera being able to make up ground in rapid fashion … so much so that Evans was able to urge his mount past Ulladulla with 50m in hand to win going away by 0.50 lengths.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Ben Currie: “He is heading down south. We had him planned to go down there earlier, but he had a bit of a setback and we had to just take our time.

“We’ve been pretty patient with him because he is a pretty good horse, we think. We brought him back to the races today and I think it was a good effort.

“We’ll just see what happens and have a look at the schedule now. We’ll see what fits in best for him. Hopefully we can find a wet track somewhere. He loves the wet.”

Jockey Brent Evans: “Yeah, the track was soft. I got a fair bit thrown back at me, but the horse travelled beautifully.

“I was always going to wait a bit and have the last crack at them, you know.

“He’s definitely got a good race in him. I think he’s just getting better with age … and I think he will improve heaps from today.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Rothera): 4.20 out to 4.40.
Favourite (Ulladulla): 2.30 out to 2.35. Finished second.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Approaching the 200m Rothera was momentarily impeded for clear running between Mister Celestial (S. Seamer) and Patties Mate (M. Morris).

Following further rain prior to and during the running of this event, stewards reassessed the track after the running of Race 3 and downgraded it to Slow 7, retrospective to the running of Race 3.

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