EF MAR 23 - RED GOD RULES OK

By Graham Potter | Thursday, March 24, 2011

Eagle Farm, March 23, 2011.
Track - Dead 5. Rail - out 9m.
Class 3 Plate (Set weights) - 1846m.
1 Red God; 2 Carry Me Baby; 3 Kings Artist.
Time: 1-52.99. (Carrying 56kg). Last 600m: 35.31.
Margins: 1.25; 0.75.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Robert Heathcote: “I thought he would make a nice Derby horse as a three-year-old. It’s really been a good learning curve, particularly for myself … he wasn’t ready mentally.

“Physically I had the same horse then that I have now, but mentally he is just a different horse.

“It really shows you how a horse has to mature … and this is what makes the good juvenile horses … a) they have to have the ability and b) they must have the right temperament.

“He had a good spell and he has come back a different horse. He is so much happier.

“You can even see it when you watch him walking around. Jimmy (Byrne) in the pre-race parade took him down to the top of the straight. He said, the horse was happy to walk back. He was so relaxed and calm.

“Then of course he goes out and races like that. I love it!”

Jockey Jim Byrne: “They slowed up coming to the bend so I did nothing to get where I was. We were going so soft. I didn’t use any petrol at all.

They were dropping the tempo so I just let him work forward, you know.

“I made him run to the line though … don’t worry about that. I definitely made him run to the line because he is a stayer and when they are cruising like that they generally don’t run home in sub-34 or thereabouts.

“The best they can do is 35’s so I pushed him out to the line. He was just too good for them.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Red God): 2.60 out to 3.00.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Zealandia was examined by the club's veterinary surgeon prior to the race and cleared to take its place in the field.

Red God (J. Byrne) and Handsome (E. Wilkinson) were slow to begin, then raced wide throughout.

Leaving the 500m Carry Me Baby (C. Munce) shifted out and brushed Handsome.

Handsome raced wide throughout.

Jockey G. Colless advised that Dusty Gold never travelled comfortably during the race to the inside of Red God, and in the home straight did not quicken and, in his opinion, the gelding is better suited when racing on the outside of other horses and improving into the race and finishing off wide in the home straight, as it seems to resent racing between horses.

Red God lost its near-fore pate in running.

More articles