BRC JUL04 - TWO-IN-A-ROW FOR CROSSTHESTART

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 5, 2009

Eagle Farm, July 4, 2009.
Class 6 Handicap - 1800. Time: 1-50.27.
Track - Dead 4. Rail - True.
1 Crossthestart; 2 Shuffle The Cash; 3 Malandrina.

The Bevan and Richard Laming trained Crossthestart made it back to back wins when taking out the first race held under the Brisbane Racing Club banner.

Jockey Jim Byrne dropped the Cape Cross gelding out from the his wide barrier to settle second last as La Zeel crossed the field and adopted tearaway tactics at the head of affairs. Byrne was content to maintain station, but he had to take a tight hold on his mount to do so as Crossthestart did not settle that well and he fought for his head on more than one occasion, clearly keen to get on with the business.

La Zeel came back to the field and the runners turned for home and, with Crossthestart still well out of his ground, Byrne latched onto the back of Shuffle The Cash and he let the grey cart Crossthestart into the race. Shuffle The Cash quickened well, but Crossthestart had just been waiting for the green light from his rider. He relished being set free and his response was immediate.

By the time Crossthestart raced past the 250m mark, he was in full cry. With 100m left to run he had the measure of the ever-game Shuffle The Cash but the latter would not give up and stayed in tow as this duo both maintained their sustained runs to hit the line hard to fill the first two positions.

Malandrina, who had taken over the running at the 350m when La Zeel weakened, had to settle for third place after being run down in the last 75m.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Bevan Laming: “The distance was no worry. He’ll get further. We are hoping he’ll get 2400m. If you do the form at Ipswich (on Cup day), he ran the fastest 600m of the day. He came home faster than they did in the Eye Liner.

"If he can get 2400m he’ll be a pretty handy horse because he’s got a good turn of foot. He’s not one-paced. We’re not sure what’s next for him. I will have a talk to (owner) Dick Karreman about that.”

Jockey Jim Byrne: “The other day (at Ipswich three weeks back) I actually thought the horse could race really well, you know. They went out and went pretty slow that day so I had to move a bit early on him. Today there was a really good tempo. On paper it looked like it was going to be good tempo. He’s still learning, the horse, and he’s got a really good turn of foot. He had a really nice turn of foot at Ipswich and he has shown that again today.”

“I was a bit concerned about the weight. He had a fair bit of weight today. He’s gone up from 53kgs at Ipswich to 57kgs - so he’s gone up 4kg today, but he handled it alright.

"He probably should have won a few races by now. I rode him once at Doomben where he was really unlucky. Whether he would have won that day or not, well... he could have won that day. The horse is racing really well at the moment and I am sure he is just going to get better and better as a stayer. He’s developing into a really nice stayer.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Crossthestart): 7.00 out to 9.00.
Favourite (Raincoat): 5.50 steady. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Apprentice B. Evans was fined $400 after pleading guilty to a charge under AR. 92(12) in that he failed to claim his full allowance on The Grogoch.

The Grogoch raced wide throughout. Leaving the 400m Bugsytwoshoes shifted out in an endeavour to improve its position and in doing so made contact with Nonsensical.

S. Galloway, the rider of Raincoat, reported that the horse raced on its wrong leg from the 900m and whilst Raincoat switched to its correct leg before the home turn, this tendency had allowed Crossthestart to improve around him, resulting in him being held up in the early stages of the straight to the inside of Crossthestart. S. Galloway added that the horse, once clear, finished the race off well. A post-race veterinary examination of La Zeel failed to reveal any abnormalities.

When questioned regarding the performance of Hunters Moon, G. Colless stated that due to the horse being one-paced he had improved his position before the home corner, however it was under pressure shortly after entering the straight and in his opinion proved disappointing. G. Colless added that he had recommended to connections that the horse be restricted to distances up to a mile. A post-race veterinary examination of Hunters Moon revealed that the gelding had sustained minor lacerations to both hind legs.

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