7 DAYS (THE WEDNESDAY REPORT): JUNE 11 - JUNE 17

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, June 18, 2014

SHORTS:

It wouldn’t have fazed Cyril Small at all but at the same time things didn’t quite turn out the way he’d hoped for after the running of the first race at Doomben last Wednesday. Small, whose mount DUBAI GEE EYE finished second, lodged a protest against the winner REFECTORY for alleged interference at the 400m. The stewards dismissed the protest but the incident concerned had a sequel when stewards charged Small with careless riding at that point, found him guilty and suspended him for seven meetings.

Another suspension could play a leading role in the chase for the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership. After this Saturday defending champion and current leader Michael Cahill has been outed until July 2 following his race winning ride on The Inventor at Ipswich on Saturday. That provides more than a little window of opportunity for Tim Bell to close the gap on Cahill, or even do better than that. Either way, Cahill’s untimely suspension could just have turned this particular race into a cliff-hanger.

Horses can make a mockery of man’s intentions as evidenced by this extract from the stewards report from the first race at Doomben last Friday. ‘Connections advised that FULL HAMMER would be ridden in a more forward position if circumstances permit. Despite the efforts of its rider, FULL HAMMER was unable to muster speed and settled at the rear of the field.’ The bottom line though is the horse did win by 4.30 lengths. I wonder how it will be ridden next time!

Interesting one at Longreach where an owner / trainer accepted to run a horse called NEPTUNE EXPRESS in both races four and five. NEPTUNE EXPRESS won race four at $7 and was scratched from race five after stewards interviewed the owner / trainer, accepted his explanation for the dual acceptance and ensured he had suitable knowledge of the provisions of LR 38.

Last Wednesday at Doomben was a good day out for the 3kg claiming apprentice Courtney Van Der Werf who brought home her first Brisbane winner in the form of the Meagher trained WIDOW’S WALK with a competent ride on the $3.30 favourite. Meagher’s stable apprentice Ashley Butler also had a winner on the day (LANIERI) to join the celebration, but Butler did have a problem later in the week when he lapsed into an old fault and was fined $300 for using the whip more than 5 times forehand prior to 100m on his ride on ADRENARIUS in the fourth at Ipswich.

The big boys do tend to cover the bases on the big days. At Ipswich on Saturday the three big names in the Brisbane Trainers’ Premiership were all to the fore. Tony Gollan, now a short priced favourite to land his first Metropolitan Premiership, saddled the winners of both the Eye Liner (ALMA’S FURY) and the Ipswich Cup (BRAVE ALI). Robert Heathcote secured a double with PINCH RIVER and OLYMPIC ANTHEM and Mathew Dunn won with LA TIKKA ROSA. Dunn also had an $11 winner, WINGARA, at the Gold Coast on the day.

A special word of praise for Chinchilla based trainer Mark Goodwin who scored one for the ‘bush’ when JACK ‘N’ ME upstaged his more rivals in the Ipswich Mile.

One for the notebook from Ipswich is the Mick Price trained JAZZ SONG. The Gai Waterhouse Classic winner has shown eye-catching ability backed by a strong constitution in the relatively short time she has been on the track. In only seven months the three-year-old filly has raced eight times, in three different states, over six different distances with six of her eight starts coming in feature races up to Group 2 level. Her latest prep encompasses six starts and only once in that time has she been beaten by more than two lengths. That makes her a pretty tough filly!

Toby Edmonds sent out a double at the Gold Coast when scoring with BLUE WOLF ($16) and TOTAL RESPONSE ($5). Both the Edmonds winners were ridden by apprentice Travis Wolfgram, who continues his march towards the Gold Coast Premiership. Noriyuki Masuda shared the day’s riding honours with Wolfgram after piloting GOT TO DASH ($2.30 equal favourite) and VIENNE ($5) to victory.

Justin Stanley landed a double at Townsville last Thursday. At the same meeting Kelvin Wharton’s solid relationship with the Craiglea Racing notched up another winner when EXECUTED, trained by Krystal Johnston, took home $32 000 for his win in the QTIS two-year-old Plate. While the Johnston family have long-targeted the QTIS money with great success in North Queensland, there was little value for the punter in EXECUTED’S win as he started at the restrictive odds of $1.10 before romping to a 5.80 length win – his fifth victory from eight starts.

By contrast, the followers of the flying Tony Gollan stable are not only finding winners, they are finding value. Amongst Gollan’s winners for the seven days under review were PULSAR ($17) and ALMA’S FURY ($12).

Trainer Stuart Kendrick won the last race at both Kilcoy and the Sunshine Coast last Saturday. His Kilcoy winner was LITTLE FIGHTER ($4) and the late evening shift saw MENACING score at $2.50.

Jockey Kate Patch won the first two races at Goondiwindi. All in all that topped off quite an eventful start to the meeting for the rider as prior to the first race Patch, because she was overweight, was replaced on her rides in races 3 and 5 but, as there were no other apprentices available, she was permitted to retain her rides in the other races and to claim 0.5 kg in races 1 & 4 and 1.5kg in race 2, which was 1kg over her allotted riding weight. Patch was fined $400 for her trouble, a hefty fine for a Goondiwindi rider.

Ray Hancock rode a double in Longreach on Saturday and Fran Edwards did the same at Mount Garnet.

Tony Sears and Brooke Stower teamed up to land a treble at Dalby on Sunday. Their winners were GALWAY TOWN ($5), TIMELESS TAIL ($2.20 favourite) and THE CONSPIRATOR ($3.30).

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