BROWNIE'S BLOG - AN IPSWICH CUP DAY TREBLE

By Damian Browne | Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Damian Browne is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia. After severe injury setbacks which would have ended a lesser man’s career, this eleven-time Group 1 winning jockey has fought back against the odds to establish a solid reputation both as a person ... through the calm, confident and professional manner in which he goes about his business ... and as a rider, where he has built an enviable race record largely courtesy of his exceptional expertise as a horseman. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’, will appear weekly on Wednesdays ... exclusive to HRO!

I had a good day at Ipswich on Saturday.

Three winners and a third from four rides on Ipswich Cup day was as about as good as I could have hoped for when I drove to the track ... a venue I had not ridden at for three years.

The big winner was obviously Smokin’ Joey in the Eye Liner.

My ride followed specific instructions.

Unusually I was told to keep the horse three or four wide so, in the early part, I was just weighing up the runs in front of me to make sure I was in a position to do that.

Neo started from outside me and when he began to come across ... if I stayed where I was ... I was going to be pushed in amongst horses so I elected to come back to give us some room and I was able to stride forward once the pace slackened.

Wez Hunter, Smokin’ Joe’s trainer, told me the horse just won’t try if he gets amongst horses ... so you’ve got to ride him ugly, to sit three or four deep on him, and I was able to do that.

Obviously with the big weight (59.5kg) and having to do a little bit of work in the race it was always a little bit of a concern how he would kick on in the straight, but he was the best horse in the race so you could be entitled to expect him to run on.

He is a Group 1 winner so I was confident that he would maintain a strong gallop.

Daph ‘N’ Alf was brave in front. He did give my horse something to catch and Peter Moody’s horse Ulmann was also flying at the finish. Ullman was very unlucky. It probably should have won the race ... but I they only pay on the result which went our way.

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Smokin’ Joey was the third of my three winners on the day. Prior to that I had won on Wicked Intent and Rock Royalty in successive races.

Wicked Intent was probably in the same boat as Smokin’ Joey in that he was probably the best horse in his QTIS two-year-old race.

Chris (Munce) reckoned a few weeks ago that he was a sprinter. You can’t really stretch him out too much so it was a good move by Chris to bring him back from 1350m to 1100m.

The horse travelled comfortably all the way. He’s got a fairly good cruising speed and he’s got a nice turn of foot when you ask him.

Again though, under 60kg, you are not too sure if it is going to be there or not. Thankfully it was.

Wicked Intent put those couple of lengths on them when he needed to and was not pushed out on the line.

He is a nice two-year-old and he could be in for a good spring if he comes back well.

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I’m told my other winner Rock Royalty set a new track record. I’m not too sure how their stop-watches work over there but we did have a good run.

From about the 600m onwards I was able to get on the back of Hidden Pearl who really looked a weighted certainty with 50.5kg.

I just tried to track it as long as could and I just came around her heels at the 200m with plenty of horse left under me.

I still had to run the leader down. We had 57.5kg so it can be pretty hard to run them down sometimes with that weight difference, but Rock Royalty is a horse that has shown plenty of ability in the past and he had the right run on Saturday.

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I was denied a full house of four winners when Darci Be Good was outgunned late in the Cup itself.

I was still very happy with the horse’s third-placed effort. He really tried hard.

The race was run at a very genuine tempo and he had to do a bit of work a bit earlier than I would have liked around the 600 ... so I think he ran very well to stay up there and finish where he did.

Three winners and a third. I’ll take it!

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As I said at the start, I had not ridden at Ipswich for three years before Saturday’s meeting.

To put that in perspective, I don’t normally ride at Ipswich other than Cup week and I was suspended for Cup week the past two years which explains that absence.

As far not riding at Ipswich throughout the year I can only reiterate that it is more to do with the way race days fall than Ipswich itself.

Obviously Saturday is the day we focus on and when I used to do Ipswich on the Friday I just felt flat on the Saturday so that’s why I follow the schedule I do now.

So, while I thank everybody for their good wishes from Ipswich Cup day ... no ... there won’t be any significant changes to my riding schedule in the foreseeable future.

Till next week,

Damian

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