SEVEN DAYS (THE WEDNESDAY REPORT): THE WEEKLY REVIEW (APRIL 23 - APRIL 29) - RACING NEWS

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, April 30, 2014

HRO's multi-faceted news and commentary feature - SEVEN DAYS (THE WEDNESDAY REPORT) - provides a weekly review of racing activity, both on and off the track.

SATURDAY METROPOLITAN WINNER FEEDBACK:

He was the focus of the attention in the first race on the card at Eagle Farm and the Rockhampton visitor Our Boy Malachi, a muscular son of Top Echelon, didn’t let anybody down as he duly landed his eleventh successive win while stopping the clock in a class record time of 56.61 seconds. He certainly passed his ‘city test’ with flying colours … and further, possibly tougher challenges now await. Brisbane will see him Our Boy Malachi action again, but a Sydney trip has also been touted by trainer John O’Sing. (Eagle Farm April 26). *Our Boy Malachi was beaten by four lengths on debut at Mackay. He then won at Gympie second-up with Sonja Wiseman aboard before leaving the Peter Fleming stable and relocating to John O’Sing in Rockhampton. Our Boy Malachi has remained unbeaten since then and has been ridden by Adrian Coombe in all of his last ten starts.

Brave Ali’s purple patch of form shows no signs of abating as the seven-year-old son of O’Reilly left his rivals struggling in his wake for the third successive time since relocated to Brisbane. Tegan Harrison has partnered Brave Ali in all three wins. The race was not without controversy though. That came off the track as the handicapping rules for the race were brought into question by some disgruntled trainers after the weights of all runners were raised from 54kg to 58kg. This came about after Peter Moody had submitted two late entries (including Epsom Handicap winner Fat Al – who was allocated 60kg) and then not accepted with either runner. Racing Queensland has agreed to examine the handicap rules for Listed races because of this occurrence. (Eagle Farm April 26).

Brave Ali, first out and first home, elevated Tony Gollan into an outright lead in the Brisbane Trainer’s Premiership. He commented on Brave Ali’s effort: “Tegan (Harrison) has found a good association with the horse. He goes really well for her. I haven’t got to do too much … just keep him happy and feed him. He came to me in great condition from Craig Martin. He makes it look quite easy at the moment the way he rolls out those sectionals. I think that has a bit to do with the rider. She just allows him to get into that rhythm. She doesn’t try and over-ride him … doesn’t overthink it. He is an old horse. He knows what he is doing and what he is doing at the moment, he is doing well.”

And Tegan Harrison’s view from Brave Ali’s saddle: “You’ve virtually just got to bounce him out, let him travel and go at the right time,” said Harrison. ”I always go back to when I first rode him and Jessica Drury told me a lot about the horse. She said you have got to set a nice tempo and he will kick off that a bit, but he will then go much the same … so, those last 100m I am always hoping that he hangs on and he has every time.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

Having above average acceleration and the will to put it to good use are useful attributes to have and the Alan Denham trained Furbish showed he has that advantage in his armoury when he lined his opposition at Eagle Farm to make it two wins from two starts. Punters didn’t miss the chestnut first time out (where he started a $2.40 favourite) and he started an even shorter $1.45 this time around. (Eagle Farm April 26).

The Brian Smith trained Elusive Storm completed a hat-trick of wins at Eagle Farm. Smith has been instrumental in furthering the prospects of talented young rider Samuel Payne who has been repaying his mentor with some impressive performances in the saddle and this win, a finely rated front running ride was no exception. Payne explained the rational of going forward: “After her last start … bad barrier, caught quite wide … where she ran enormous, today we just wanted to let her roll into it a bit more. She got there easy enough. I don’t think I had to push her too much and when I asked her to kick down the run, she kicked.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

One race later Brian Smith was denied race-to-race winners when Cracco went down in spirited fashion in a two-way battle with the Desleigh Forster trained Carmora who showed true grit and determination to prevail in a pressurised finish to claim his fourth win in only ten starts. Forster was not concerned when the race came down to a stride-for-stride contest over the final 200m. “That’s what he likes,” said Forster. “He likes to tough it out. He likes to get out and do the hard yards. He just loves a dog-fight and you know when it comes to a dog-fight he is going to fight right to the line. He just can’t draw a gate. Like today he didn’t draw a gate and Michael (Cahill) had to use him up, go forward and do a bit of work on him. He is a pretty genuine horse.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

“Michael Cahill, whose success on Carmora took him to forty-nine metropolitan winners for the season, thirteen ahead of Tim Bell and Glen Colless, explained the trick to riding Carmora: “He has been a horse that has always had to be ridden aggressively. If you give him an easy time he tends to take that as a sign he has run his race but, to his credit today, we did get pretty steady and then I made him go from the 600 … which goes against my grain as a rider because I don’t like to be that aggressive that far out. But that suits this particular horse and he kept getting stronger all the way to the line. Hopefully he can take the next step.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

Few horses have made greater progress in the last month-and-a-half than the three-year-old Mossman gelding Hopfgarten. Four wins over that period when moving from Class 3 to become a Group three winner while raising the distance from 1350m to 1600m all point to a horse on the move and trainer Robert Heathcote was understandably upbeat about the way Hopfgarten’s career is unfolding. “I’ve liked him from day one. I think a few people laughed when I said I might throw a nomination in for the Stradbroke. He beat some pretty tidy horses there today. He is one of those horses that is just doing everything we are asking him to do. Sure it’s huge step (to the Stradbroke), but dreams are free in racing.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

Jockey Damian Browne wasn’t about to pour any cold water on those dreams. “This horse has really come along in leaps and bounds in the last six weeks and it might be surprising what he can go to over the carnival. I’m looking forward to it. Today the barrier was a bit of a concern before the race, but the horse has been racing very, very well and showing versatility. There didn’t seem to be a lot of speed in the race and so I just wanted to put him into the race early. I was happy to play it by ear from there but when they started to walk I took advantage of that and went up to be outside the leader. As I said, he is versatile. He can handle all track conditions. He can go forward or back. There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be netter things in store for him.”

Any Group race success is welcome in any stable but when it arrives in the form of a stable quinella in a home-town Group 2 event and is achieved by two runners who have been the flag-bearers of the stable for a number of years, well … victory doesn’t get much sweeter than that!

That is exactly what trainer Tony Gollan achieved in the Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm when his two battle-hardened ‘Boom Boys’, Temple of Boom and Spirit Of Boom, filled the first two places respectively in the day’s feature event. Apart from Gollan’s training feat, the result was something of a McAlpine family / Eureka Stud success story. The McAlpine’s bred and co-own both horses, who have largely the same ownership … and even the horses have a family angle to present as both horses horses are out of the mare Temple Spirit. (Temple Of Boom, who is by Piccolo, is a seven-year-old. He is a year older than his half-brother Spirit Of Boom, who is by Sequalo). All was not joy for punters though. The winner Temple Of Boom started at $41. Spirit Of Boom, who was flying at the finish, started favourite at $4. Form reversal … or was the rider of the second placed runner a touch over-confident? (Eagle Farm April 26).

Tony Gollan commented on his Victory Stakes winner: “Look it (Temple Of Boom’s win) was not really a surprise to us. I know his form doesn’t look that good but he has been going really good for a while. I guess it is just circumstances I guess. When they win a Group 1 their rating goes right up and it makes them a little bit hard to place. I put Tegan (Harrison) on the horse … a young rider with no inhibitions. She’s riding great and I said, just let the old fella be where-ever he wants to be and just let him run his race. It didn’t look pretty. I was fairly sure before the race it wouldn’t, but he is a tough horse and when you let him do what he wants to do he can really pull out a good run.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

… and on his Victory Stakes runner-up: “Tim (Bell) only had one option with Spirit Of Boom. You’ve got to switch him off and put him to sleep. He has got a big finish and he pulled a big finish out today. Tempo was the only thing that got him beat.” *Both horses will now go straight to the BTC Cup. (Eagle Farm April 26).

The other success story of the race was that of rider Tegan Harrison. Just weeks after losing her city claim Harrison landed yet another double (having won earlier on Brave Ali) while reaching new heights in claiming her first Group 2 success. It was a big day out for the young rider who now holds an eight win lead over Anthony Allen as she seeks to defend her Brisbane Metropolitan Apprentice Premiership title which she won with such aplomb last season.

Harrison summed up the win from her perspective: “Tony (Gollan) gave me a good run down on the horse. He said he’s probably being beginning well and they’ve been taking that off him by dragging him back. He said he is just the sort of horse that needs to be allowed to do what he wants to do. He said don’t worry if you are three deep … and that’s the first time I’ve heard Tony say that … so I thought, ok he must mean it and that’s where we ended up. He said I should just have the horse in a rhythm and so I just sat there and pretended I wasn’t three deep. Then down the straight I had Jim Byrne’s horse (Snitzerland) covered and as I went for him he knocked the stick out of my hand and I thought, what else can go wrong here … so I was pretty determined to get to that finish line. I’m sure if I had my stick, with him being an older horse … if I was able to give him a couple of cracks I think he would have won a lot better than he did.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

The five-year-old grey Time To Plunder rounded off the day at Eagle Farm by claiming the sixth win of his career. The Liam Birchley trained runner came home under the guidance of Damian Brown who this completed a double on the day following his earlier success aboard Hopfgarten. Birchley’s placing of the horse was a key factor in his victory. “He has been consistent in some good races even though he was sort of racing outside of his class,” said Birchley. “He dropped back in class today. You know, a good gate and Damian (Browne) could win on a broomstick at the moment. The horse has been a little bit field shy ever since he has come up here and I actually did a bit of work with him last week just bumping him around with a few ponies trying to get his confidence back. Hopefully it’s worked a bit because that’s the best he has gone inside horses for a while.” (Eagle Farm April 26).

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SHORTS:

It was good to welcome the Ipswich track back into the active race meeting fold. Racing returned to the track on Wednesday following on an eleven week break during which time remedial work was undertaken on the track to improve the racing surface between the 1000m and 700m marks. The project was completed on time and on budget. The track’s performance rated very well on its return but let’s not get ahead of ourselves as per some reports. It should be remembered that a true perspective of the desired level of improvement will only come after the track has been tested over a period of time. (Ipswich April 23).

The Kelly Doughty stable continued its fine run of form striking with Tears and Arki to compete a double at Ipswich before following up with another success with Russian Lace taking out the first race at Beaudesert on Anzac Day. (Ipswich April 23 and Beaudesert April 25).

I have read criticism belittling meetings at the likes of Kilcoy because supposedly top jockeys and trainers do not participate there. Well there has always been a tiered structure in racing … a very necessary cog in the industry wheel which allows jockeys and trainers the opportunity to develop their skills while playing in their own division. Throw them in the Premier league to start and they will not survive. Congratulations to Vishan Venkaya, who rode his first career winner at Kilcoy (on the Kathy Stabe trained Thomas The Tank). Venkaya was dislodged behind the barriers, in what stewards described as a harmless fall but he got back up, dusted himself off and proceded to get the job done. Good on him for achieving his breakthrough win. (Kilcoy April 24).

Well a top trainer, Brian Smith, did visit Kilcoy and he did get the biscuits in the featured Digger’s Cup when Samuel Payne earned his riding fee with a vigourous effort aboard the $3.20 favourite Dazzling Knight. Smith likes winning anywhere but he was clearly quite humbled by the ‘Digger’s’ occasion in the post-race presentation. (Kilcoy April 24).

The Desleigh Forster stable, after a bit of a quiet period, is again starting to fire. A double at Beaudesert (with I’m Chillin and Execute At Dawn) followed by Carmora’s win on Saturday is evidence of that. This is a stable to watch when they start hitting their straps. (Beaudesert April 25 and Eagle Farm April 26).

All credit to the up-and-coming Hopfgarten for his win in the Gunsynd Classic but don’t right off the beaten favourite Rudy just yet. Helen Page’s charged was steadied, bumped and became unbalanced at various stages of the running in a race where the temp also probably didn’t suit him. Finishing third was still a good effort. (Eagle Farm April 26).

Another result you can draw a line through is the performance of River Lad in the Victory Stakes. The horse raced well below expectations. A post race veterinary examination of River Lad revealed the gelding to have been hit in the near side eye by a clod … which goes a long way to explaining the gelding’s clear lack of interest in the contest. (Eagle Farm April 26).

Apprentice Leslie Tilly rode three of the five winners at Cunnamulla. (Cunnamulla April 25).

Tamara Tincknell shared the riding honours with Dan Ballard at Mount Isa. Each rider recorded a double but Tinckell’s day also picked up a two meeting suspension which took just a little bit of gloss off her day. (Mount Isa April 25).

Nathan Evans didn’t get off so lightly. The rider was charged under the provisions of AR 135(b) which reads: The rider of every horse shall take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure that his horse is given full opportunity to win or obtain the best possible place in the field. The ride under scrutiny came aboard Manner Lassie at Esk on April 12 with the specifics being that the actions of Evans ‘were unreasonable in restraining the mare from a point near the 150 metres and a short distance later near the 100 metres, were unreasonable in directing Manner Lassie to the inside of Bush Beat. After considering all evidence stewards suspended the riding licence of Nathan Evans for a period of four weeks. Interesting to weigh up how that outcome fits into place with the Brooke Richardson case.

Tony Gollan not only achieved success with Brave Ail and Temple Of Boom in town, he also landed a double at the Sunshine Coast where Amex (a $1.85 favourite) and Swingin Dazzler (an $18 outsider) saluted for the stable. (Sunshine Coast April 26).

A new one from Toowoomba. The start of the first race was delayed when the Clerk of the Course was dislodged from his horse, which required recapturing. (Toowoomba April 26).

The Appo’s were on the scoreboard at Chinchilla. Bradley won the opening event on the Gilbert Baker trained Gaelstorm while the every-green Lyle closed out the meeting in a nail-biter aboard the Mark Goodwin trained Not Without Sin. (Chinchilla April 26).

Dale Evans rode half the card at Emerald winning three out of the six races. (Emerald April 26).

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