EF OCT 02 - CHILLED’S SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Eagle Farm, October 02, 2010.
Track - Slow 6. Rail - True.
Open Handicap - 2100m.
Time: 2-13.63. Last 600m: 38.09. (Carrying 55kg).
1 Chilled; 2 Yield Curve; 3 Beartracker.
Margins: 1.00; Long-neck.

Trainer Les Kelly has certainly found the key to unlock the potential of the five-year-old Chilled whose form continues to go from strength to strength.

The son of Redoute’s Choice was given a perfectly rated front-running ride by jockey Michael Cahill at Eagle Farm on Saturday and he was able to assert his authority in an emphatic manner in the run home as he hit the line with a little bit more in hand than the official one length margin suggests.

Chilled had things his own way a couple of lengths in front for the first 500m, but he was joined by Yield Curve going through the 1500m mark. The latter, who likes to lead, had been tardy away from his outside draw and jockey Larry Cassidy had allowed him to take his time in tracking up to Chilled.

Once alongside Chilled though, Yield Curve did not make the move stick as Cahill held the rail and kept Yield Curve at bay for the moment. Cassidy was then content to settle Yield Curve in second spot, a length off Chilled as the latter steadied the pace as he took the field down the back straight at a little more than a moderate tempo.

The speed allowed the field to become quite compact approaching the home turn. Chilled still led Yield Curve by just over a length. Beartracker was prominent on the outside of Yield Curve while Bell Academy held the inside line, also right in contention.

Rightson was next best with Kinsmate. Both were caught slightly flatfooted as the tempo came on as the field quickened early in the straight. Uncle Jan was further back. He quickly came under pressure and fell away.

As Chilled kicked away in the first half of the straight, Beartracker tried to go with him while Bell Academy also kept whacking away along the inside. At that stage Yield Curve was only plodding and apparently finding nothing as he went back to fourth place. In truth though, he was only failing to sprint off an ordinary speed.

Approaching the 200m mark, Chilled had his race firmly under control. Bell Academy cried enough. Beartracker was game, but had given everything he’d got without being able to make up the leeway.

That meant that Cahill was able to guide Chilled with a degree of comfort over the concluding stages to claim a second successive victory (after his fine effort in the Lismore Cup) and the eighth success of his career.

Yield Curve staying prowess served him well in the final chase home as he improved up to second place, going past Beartracker in the final 75m.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Les Kelly: “He rated him beautifully. Cassidy (on Yield Curve) made him pull a bit early, but when he put the pressure on we were too good.

“He looks like he is just going to get further and better. He’s getting better every run.

“We could spell him or we could look for something else. He is eligible for the Magic Millions Stayers’ Cup, so that’s a possibility.

“The way this horse is going … he just keeps improving and he looks like he’ll run a mile-and-a-half on his ear.

“We’ve just got to get him to settle a bit more.

“He’s certainly turned around now. How far he can go … we wouldn’t know, but he’s come a long, long way in a short time this time.

Jockey Michael Cahill: “The stable has got him going very, very well.

“My horse was perfectly relaxed until the other horse (Yield Curve) came up alongside him. He just got mine over-racing. It got him fired up a little bit.

“He slugged it out good. I went to rein him up and changed the whip and he responded good to that.

“He did the same at Lismore. He showed a better turn of foot there, but he was covered away. He had a better run but, like I say, he was smothered away … and I think that is the best way to ride him … in behind them.

“Having said that, he is versatile as he showed today.”

Jockey Larry Cassidy (rider of the second placed Yield Curve, who had gone out bidding for a third successive win): “We were slightly slow away … but that didn’t cost us the race.

“The other horse (Chilled) was probably just a bit too nippy for him, especially at the weights.

“Yield Curve is the sort of horse that sort of needs to be able to control the race, but the other horse was controlling it. It was still a top run.”

Jockey Jim Byrne (rider of Rightson, whose recent runs have been in the spotlight. Rightson finished fourth in this event): “He didn’t really get through that track too good. I don’t think he is a wet tracker.

“The journey I don’t think is a problem, because he relaxes well. I think on top of the ground he’ll show much better.

“Look, for him to still run fourth it was a good effort because, in all honesty, he didn’t run the track. If he didn’t like the track and he didn’t run the journey he wouldn’t only be four-and-a-half off them.

“He ran the journey alright I thought. He just couldn’t accelerate on that surface. That was a slow track.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Chilled): 2.00 in to 1.80.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Beartracker (App M. Hellyer) and Bell Academy (B. El-Issa) made contact on jumping away.

J. Byrne reported that Rightson was reluctant to stretch out on the rain affected track when placed under pressure in the straight.

Following the running of this event the track was reassessed to a Slow 6 retrospective to this event.

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