DOOM AUG 22 - SECRETS UNTOLD SCORES TOUGH WIN

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Phillip Cox trained Secrets Untold scored a tough win under a perfectly judged ride from Stathi Katsidis to claim a second successive success and the ninth victory of his career.

Katsidis settled the seven-year-old in third placing early, then when back to fourth when the pace slackened, but he remained within striking distance of the leader Little Stranger and Thin And Crispy who was tracking the front-runner. As the field turned for home Little Stranger and Thin And Crispy kicked away together. At the 250m mark, Katsidis asked Secrets Untold to get busy.

Secrets Untold responded well enough, but he did have a fight on his hands as Little Stranger and Thin And Crispy remained locked together, showing every commitment in their battle for the honours.

When it mattered most, Katsidis got Secrets Untold to lift and gather in the two leaders and that effort was also good enough to thwart the spirited late charge of Save A Buck, who, in the end, had to settle for a fast-finishing second placing.

Doomben, August 22, 2009.
Track - Good 2. Rail - out 2.5m.
Open Handicap - 1615m. Time: 1-37.90.
1 Secrets Untold; 2 Save A Buck; 3rd - Little Stranger.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Phillip Cox: “It was a game win hey ... particularly with that sort of weight. He (Stathi Katsidis) is a great rider. What a great rider. He had the extra weight. He had three kg’s on that other horse. He’s unreal isn’t he? Actually unreal.

“The horse has always been a good horse ... a real trier. When you get a horse to this stage there are not that many races for them. The only choice we’ve got at the moment is a 1500m at Eagle Farm in a fortnight. He’s got to go in that. I think three weeks after that there is another mile here, something like that. We just have to go where the races are now, you know. While he is racing like this ... it’s great.”

Jockey Stathi Katsidis: “He doesn’t like being in front long this horse. As you can see, today he was going to win easily but he pulled up the last bit ... so there are quite a few tricks to him. You try to hit the front late as you can, but I hit the front probably a little bit too soon today.

“Little Stranger, although we got him to work a bit early, he got away with a good break on the corner. With his (apprentice) claim I thought he might be hard to beat so I had to work my one up a bit early, but we were able to run him down. He is going very well the horse ... Phillip (Cox) has got him going amazingly ... and he probably can win better races. He carrying big weights at the moment.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Secrets Untold): 4.40 out to 4.80 in to 4.60.
Favourite (Little Stranger): 3.30 out to 4.00. Finished third.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
In Rehearsal (J. Byrne) was held up over the concluding stages. Stewards intend to interview jockey G. Colless, the rider of Save A Buck, regarding his use of the whip over the concluding stages.

STEWARDS SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT EXTRACT (Dated 23/08/09):
From Doomben Saturday. 22.08.09: Jockey G. Colless pleaded guilty to contravening AR. 137A(5) in that he exceeded the allowable amount of strikes with the whip in consecutive strides aboard Save A Buck in Race 7. After considering submissions on penalty, noting G. Colless's exemplary record in regard to this rule and his plea of guilty, stewards ordered that G. Colless forgo his riding fee plus his riding percentage and in addition ordered that he be suspended for a period of 4 race meetings to commence on 23.08.09 up to and including 28.08.09.