LARRY AND BARRY STRIKE AGAIN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, May 9, 2009

Doomben Dash - 1100m. Time 1-03.64. Track: Good 3. Rail: True.
1 She’s In The Guide; 2 Mr Slick; 3 Mitanni.

The Larry Cassidy/ Barry Baldwin combination, which continues to flourish, again came to the fore when She’s In The Guide made it two from two this prep. The mare used her outright speed from a favourable draw to outgun her opposition from start to finish to confirm that she is well and truly back in the groove following a four month layoff. Mr Slick gave a warning of things to come with a bold second placing while the old war horse Mitanni, who is rising ten, showed there was plenty of fight in him yet with a solid third placing.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Barry Baldwin: “I’m perfectly happy with that. She just keeps improving that little bit. No, we won’t be looking for further, mate. There is a 1100m Chief De Beers in two weeks and there’s the Lightning Handicap after that, so why go further. We’ll let her stick to what she is good at.”

Jockey Larry Cassidy: “Yeah, you know obviously she is a very good mare. She felt very good. She is a gutsy mare ... very speedy. You got to ride her, you know, you’ve just got to let her roll. If you think you are going too fast, well that’s the way you have got to ride here. You can’t jump and try to stack them up, because that’s just no good for her. She just doesn’t go any faster. I actually dropped my stick at the 300m which certainly didn’t help. She would have responded more with the whip, because the other day, I thought I was beaten at the 300m and when I got into her she really responded. So today I think I should have won by further. It looked like she had nothing left, but that might not have been the case.”

The Cassidy brothers rode the quinella here as Jim was aboard the fast finishing Mr Slick, who finished second.
Larry Cassidy: “I ridden a few quinella’s with Jim, but he did beat me by a nose in a Group 1 so I think he has got the advantage. Coming back to scale Jim said, ah ... you got me. I said, about time.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (She’s In The Guide): 3.80 out to 4.60. (Equal favourite).
Equal favourite (Simplest): 4.80 in to 4.60. Finished tenth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
When the pace steadied near the 700m Simplest improved up on to the heels of Sequallan and when being restrained became unbalanced and made contact with the running rail and lost considerable ground. Sectagonal, which was following, had to be checked as a consequence. Nuclear Medicine and Pride Of Power raced wide throughout. Keano had difficulty obtaining clear running in the straight until about 100m out.

When questioned regarding his riding approaching the home turn and in the early stages of the straight, A. Pattillo (Sequestrate) said that today he had ridden the horse in a similar fashion to that, which he had done many times in the past, and he felt that any endeavour to improve sooner than he did would have meant being pushed off the track and he was happy to follow Mitanni into the race. He said that over the concluding stages he obtained running and was able to ride the horse out. The explanation tendered by A. Pattillo was today recorded.

PREVIOUS COMMENTS ON HRO REGARDING WINNER:
Trainer Barry Baldwin (speaking after She’s In The Guide’s previous win on April 25, 2009): “She’s had a few problems, mate. She pulled up lame last start she had.” (That was more than four months ago, on December 6). “She pulled up quite lame. It actually appeared that she might have done something to her spine. She couldn’t walk home from the races. I gave her pain-killers and all, but she still couldn’t walk home. We had to bring the float in onto the racetrack after everyone had gone. We put her in the float and we had to drive her right to her stable door to get her off. We don’t know what happened to her, whether she pinched a nerve or whatever. We never did find out. But she has a long spell and she’s had a lot of treatment. Yeah, and thank heavens, she’s come back and won that one. We will just take it race by race. Mate, she is a very fast mare and if you stick around the 1000m ... well, she’s never run a bad race over 1000m.