SCRIVEN HAS A LOT RIDING ON THIS ONE

By Graham Potter | Monday, May 23, 2011

If fate conspired against Shane Scriven at Ipswich the stars aligned for him at Doomben.

Scriven’s now notorious ‘whip snatch’ incident in the last race at Ipswich on April 15 and the subsequent five month suspension he picked up for that radical indiscretion has been a point of much debate.

A stay of proceedings was granted while Scriven challenged the severity of his penalty. That meant that the rider was able to continue his relationship with the West Australian powerhouse Scenic Shot in the first half of the Winter Carnival.

Three rides on the Daniel Morton trained eight-year-old this time around have resulted in a Listed race win at Eagle Farm, a third placed finish in the Group 2 Hollindale at the Gold Coast and then the ‘big one’, a Group 1 win in the Doomben Cup on Saturday, making it a Cup double as Scenic Shot had pervious taken out the 2009 running of the event, also with Scriven aboard.

Everything fell neatly into place for Scenic Shot to achieve the Doomben Cup double on Saturday, but this time there was no massive salute from Scriven after the line, as he had done in 2009, and there was no great celebration from the rider coming back to scale.

Happy with the result in the present but drained by the experiences of the past month and anxious about his future, Scriven must have thought he was watching a movie with almost a fairytale ending, but ‘The End’ titles have yet to be posted.

The problem for Scriven is, while the stay of proceedings was a very good result for him, with the earnings of Scenic Shot in the last two races alone topping $500 000, all the highs and the lows of the past month are now confined to history … and D-Day has arrived!

Scriven now faces the Appeal Board and will argue his case against the severity of his suspension.

He has a lot riding on this one.

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