DOOM AUG 15 - ZERO ROCK TWO FROM TWO THIS PREP

By Graham Potter | Monday, August 17, 2009

The smart Danzero mare Zero Rock made it two from two this prep when she held off the spirited persistent challenge of Guissepino to claim her seventh win from only eleven starts.

The short-priced, Kelso Wood trained four-year-old went straight to the lead. Zero Rock always had Guissepino close-up on her outside, but she never relinquished her narrow advantage with apprentice jockey Michael Hellyer just asking his mount to do enough to hold her only challenger at bay. It might have got closer than the followers of the favourite might have wanted, but all you have to be is in front at the line, and Zero Rock got the job done.

Doomben, August 15, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - True.
Fillies And Mares Open Handicap - 1110m. Time: 1-04.13.
1 Zero Rock; 2 Guissepino; 3rd Seething Duck.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Kelso Wood: “Coming back in distance (from 1200m to 1100m) didn’t worry me. She’s had three weeks off so was fresh enough ... and no, I wasn’t particularly worried by the close finish either. He (Michael Hellyer) only rode her hands and heels. The other bloke was flogging his ... so yeah, I think she had her pretty well covered didn’t she?

“The horse wasn’t quite one hundred percent over the Carnival (where she raced against the likes of Belong To Many and Ortensia in the Silk Stocking and the Glenlogan respectively). She had feet issues in the Silk Stocking and probably carried then over to Doomben in her next start.

“Then she got a bit of an infection in the throat which we never picked up properly until one morning I galloped her and she come in blowing pretty bad. We scoped her and we found there was an inflammation in the throat. But she’s come back well. Micheal only rode her hands and heels and she’ll always give you something. We’ll go to September 5 now ... to a ($100 000) Fillies and Mares Quality race at Eagle Farm.”

Apprentice jockey Michael Hellyer: “I’ve had a lot of luck lately. Trainers have been giving me a go and it just shows if I can get a go I can crack it. My confidence is going really high at the moment. I probably eased her back a bit too much but, in saying that, she travelled well at the turn. I was always confident. The other mare (Guissepino) put up a good fight but, at the end of the day, Zero Rock was always the better horse.

“I only rode hands and heels. You know, ever since the new whip rule came in ... I’ve spoken to a lot of old jockeys that I knew down in Sydney and to Malcolm Fitzgerald ... and Darren Beadman always told me that using the whip is the last resort. With the new whip rule I’m more inclined to go hands and heels and probably as a last resort I’ll pull the stick, but I didn’t need to do that here. Zero Rock is a very genuine horse and she did the job. She is a very nice mare.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Zero Rock): 1.30 out to 1.35 in to 1.24.
The winner was the favourite.
Zero Rock was the only favourite to win on the day.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
App S. Bogenhuber the rider of Spanish Sister was fined the sum of $100.00 under the provisions of AR92(12) for failing to claim her full allowance. Leaving the 800m Guiseppino (S. Katsidis) over-raced for a short distance after taking a position outside the leader. Rounding the first turn Seething Duck (A. Spinks) displayed a tendency to lay out and had to be steadied from the heels of Hello Christmas (L. Cassidy) as a consequence. Seething Duck then continued to somewhat race ungenerously in the middle stages and near the 500m Seething Duck shifted out making contact with Hello Christmas.