GOLD COAST JAN 7 - SKATING ON ICE GLIDES HER WAY TO AN EMPHATIC VICTORY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 8, 2012

Gold Coast, January 7, 2012.
Track - Good 3. Rail - True.
Class 6 Handicap - 1400m.
1 Skating On Ice; 2 Catashee; 3 The Reveller; 4 Achievements.
Time: 1-22.76. Last 600m: 34.47.

The Les Kelly trained Skating On Ice was set a fair task here but her class pulled her through in the end, in spite of doing it tough in the running.

The short five day back-up from the Goldmarket was always going to be a slight worry and there were also others hurdles to overcome.

Skating On Ice was stepping up in distance to 1400m, a distance over which she had raced on three previous occasions without finding a place. She jumped from an unfavourable wide draw, carried top weight and was giving between 1.5kg and 5kg to her twelve rivals.

Over-riding all that though, in part, was the relative quality of the opposition and punters and bookmakers decided, with a couple of exceptions, that they weren’t quite up to it.

They installed Skating On Ice as a $2.80 favourite. Only two other runners, The Reveller ($3.00) and Achievements ($6.00) were quoted in single figures.

Skating On Ice had no luck in the running. After failing to get in from her wide draw she had to earn her way into contention with each passing stride. She went back to just worse than midfield early on before improving her position in the approach to the turn, all the time being held four wide.

Skating On Ice was the widest runner on straightening and she was all of six lengths adrift of Achievements and Lopped who led the early chase for home. As jockey Mitchell Wood asked Skating On Ice to let down, the mare momentarily brushed Emoticon.

Rather than derail her challenge, that slight contact seemed to spur on Skating On Ice and she started making ground quickly. By the 200m she was within four lengths of the lead and, now in full cry, Skating On Ice managed to turn that deficit into a half-length victory over Catashee (who ran on stoutly down the centre of the track) at the line.

The Reveller finished third and his rider Glen Colless was called in for a ‘please explain’ with regard to his decision making by Stewards.

While riders should always be open to question on their performance, this particular case does seem to have been a harsh call by Stewards.

Colless saved ground on The Reveller which was arguably key to him getting into contention. He was held up only briefly in the straight without ever losing serious momentum and the horse was out into the clear with 150m left to run where he was clearly able to win if good enough.

Had Colless shifted out as per the Stewards preferred option, he would have covered more ground and, as he was not hitting the line with winning momentum having taken a shorter route, there has to be some doubt whether he could have fared any better if he had switched out at the top of the straight. Trainer Matthew Dunn’s view is relevant to this argument (See Stewards Report Extract).

A difficult call. The Stewards saw fit to question the ride which is their prerogative and their message had good intentions but, you have to wonder, if that ride was considered questionable and they are consistent … there could be quite a queue waiting at their door after future meetings.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Les Kelly: “She was backing up here. She may have one more run. It’s hard to put them in the paddock when they are winning.

“She can’t draw an alley. I’ll be more than shocked when she does draw a good alley one day.

“The plan was … actually the instructions were to go forward. We thought they’d go slow and we would go forward. I don’t know what happened there, but she ended up back further than we thought she would be.

“She picked them up beautifully in the straight. She is a class act.

Jockey Mitchell Wood: “We had a few things to overcome. We had weight. We had barrier.

“She also had to back up five days after the Goldmarket on Monday and that’s probably what cost her a bit of gate speed. She didn’t really have any at all, so I tried to get her in as best we could and, you know, she travelled genuinely the whole race.

“I had a bit of cover which was something, but she was still three deep.

“Coming to the 600 I was pushed a little deeper, but she was still on the bridle and ready to let go like she did. She was just cruising.

“If she didn’t race on Monday she probably wins by two or three lengths comfortably. She just felt it a little bit the last 150 when she was going past them.

“All credit to the horse … tough horse. She probably ran a mile today (the race distance was 1400m) so it was a good run and she was definitely the class act in that race.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Skating On Ice): 3.00 out to 3.10 in to 2.80.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Top Jaydee (J. Byrne), Blackwoods Choice (L. Cheshire) and Narcelo (J. Ford) were all slow to begin.

Lucky Songs (Matthew Palmer) was hampered at the start between Emoticon (A. Best) and Primeval Demand (E. Wilkinson), both of which shifted ground.

Emoticon over-raced in the early stages of the event.

After passing the 800m when the pace steadied Top Jaydee improved up onto the heels of The Reveller (G. Colless) and had to be checked. Primeval Demand which was trailing also had to be checked in consequence.

Near the 300m Emoticon shifted out under pressure and bumped Skating On Ice (App M. Wood).

Looped (R. McMahon), Narcelo and Skating On Ice all raced wide throughout.

Stewards sought an explanation from G. Colless the rider of The Reveller as to why he remained behind Newsnight (J. Taylor) rather than move The Reveller to a position behind Achievements (C. Munce) approaching the 400m which ultimately resulted in The Reveller being held up until near the 250m when racing to the inside of the heels of Achievements.

G. Colless stated that it was his intention to follow Achievements into the race as he felt that it would be one of the hardest to beat and added that at the 400m he was unable to move outwards due to Horoscopes (D. Griffin) racing tightly to his outside.

G. Colless added that shortly after entering the home straight his mount improved quickly to the inside of the heels of Achievements and when that runner did not quicken as he expected, he was held up until he was able to shift out around the heels of Achievements near the 200m.

Trainer M. Dunn advised that The Reveller is best suited when ridden with cover and produced late as the horse only possesses a short sprint. Mr Dunn informed stewards that the horse has been successful when ridden similarly in the past.

Stewards advised G. Colless that in their view it would have been a better option to move outwards with Horoscopes leaving the 400m to ensure his mount gained clear running rather than remaining to the inside of Achievements and relying on it to quicken to afford his mount clear running.

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