KATSIDIS STRIKES AGAIN IN GRAFTON CUP

By Graham Potter | Thursday, July 16, 2009

It was a New Zealand success story down Grafton way when Castle Heights, trained by the Ruakaka based Donna Logan snared the Grafton Cup by a nostril from Hume and Twin Wing in a spirited three way go to the line.

When speaking to HRO at the start of the week Jockey Stathi Katsidis said, “I have appealed my suspension ... I’ve appealed and got a stay of proceedings. The appeal won’t be heard this week, it will be the week after. So I will be riding at Grafton this week. I’ve got a really good ride in the Grafton Cup.”

That ride was on Castle Heights.

The four-year-old gelding was easy to back in the betting ring. That was understandable given that the two Grafton Cup favourites, Hume and Bellagio Wynn, had easily accounted for Castle Heights In their previous clash in the Tattersalls Cup at Eagle Farm.

The weight difference from that run to this encounter hardly looked enough to threaten a reversal of that result. Here, Castle Heights was 2kg better off with Hume for a 7.30 length beating and he was 0.5kg better off with Bellagio Wynne for a 6.30 length deficit. But then again it is well known that an on-song Katsidis in the saddle can add lengths to a horses’ performance, as it did here.

Katsidis was content to sit on the inside in midfield as Twin Wing cut out the early pace. Bellagio Wynn and Hume settled just off the speed, perfectly positioned. Castle Heights continued to save ground in the sweep to the turn. He quickly moved into contention as Twin Wing continued to kick at the head of affairs, Hume scouted wide in search of clear-running and Bellagio Wynn started to struggle as the pressure increased on all runners.

Suddenly Castle Heights was in second spot, switching away from the rail now to move up on the outside of Twin Wing, who refused to give ground. Hume was struggling to pick up the pace early in the straight. He would build momentum, but he was losing valuable ground while the change of gear started to grind into place.

Inside the final 200m Castle Heights and Twin Wing were entrenched in a two-way warfare. Inside the last 100m Hume at last got going and started to rattle home. The latter closed quickly on the duelling leaders. The three runners flashed through the line almost locked together, but the photo gave Castle heights an advantage of a nostril, handing the hard-ridden son of Golan a slice of Grafton Cup glory.

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