THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - TIMELESS PRINCE'S LONG PATH TO THE SUNSHINE COAST CUP

By Graham Potter | Sunday, February 7, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

The 2016 edition of the Sunshine Coast Cup had anything but a straight run to the line.

The $100 000 feature race was originally scheduled for Australia Day but when heavy rain fell not long before the opening event and persisted, the official track rating plummeted and, with visibility also a determining factor, the Australia Day meeting was abandoned after only three races.

The Cup was then transferred to last Sunday’s meeting. No problem there, except the track condition leading up to race-day remained heavy, to the extent that the use of the cushion track as an alternative to the rain saturated turf was added to the conversation.

That option did pose a problem of sorts in that, if the meeting was indeed transferred to the cushion track, it would do so without the running of the Cup as the feature would then have been withdrawn from the card.

On race-day morning the decision was made. The meeting would go ahead on the grass with the Cup headlining the day.

More rain fell during the morning and when the horses came into the parade ring for the first race horse and strapper were both getting soaked. Not for the first time though, the Sunshine Coast track came through under testing circumstances.

The races were on.

Fast forward to the long awaited Cup itself and more drama. In winding up for his final effort Pillar Of Creation shifts out and takes Sambuca Shot out into the path of Timeless Prince. The latter has to give ground momentarily but maintains enough momentum to hit the line hard where he is beaten into second place by the narrowest of margins by Pillar Of Creation.

The jockey of Timeless Prince has a look at the race video ad declines to protest. The stewards step in and lodge a protest of their own which is upheld and the first two placings are reversed.

How was that for a roller-coaster ride?

Timeless Prince’s connections were at last able to celebrate ... after bringing their horse to the racecourse on Tuesday and being sent home without a run ... after waiting to see if the big race would go ahead on the Sunday or whether it would be left out of a cushion track program ... after living through the anguish of the interrupted chase to the line ... after having their jockey decide not to lodge a protest ... after seeing the stewards come up with a protest of their own and then having to get through that hearing before finally hearing the result they wanted ... which made all of the above worthwhile.

The steward’s protest raised some debate. Suffice to say it is a rarity in Australia but a valuable option in terms of determining a fair result.

As John Schreck, the former Hong Kong and Sydney Chief Steward, wrote in his blog on horseracingonly, “Individual stewards have an absolute obligation to raise any issue they see in a race and have it properly and independently determined to see if it affected the result of the race.

"It is in everybody’s interests to do that and by doing so stewards are only doing their job.”

It had been a long week.

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