THE TOAST OF TOOWOOMBA

By Graham Potter | Monday, April 18, 2016

XXXX GOLD TOOWOOMBA CUP HANDICAP – Quality – 2000m.
TOOWOOMBA – APRIL 16:

WINNER: HONEY TOAST (Redoute’s Choice – Purde)

Owners: B M Currie, R J Rice, B W Facer, L W Taylor, M J Webster, Mrs T M Collins, Mrs E J Long, D I Simon, B D Thomsen, D K Thomsen, R M Van De Velde, J W Price, B P Collins, J V Miller, B P Grills, B Grills & N C Price, Gladstone Racing (Mgr: G J Butcher)

Trainer: Ben Currie. Jockey: Jim Byrne.
Track: Good 3. Rail: True.
Second: Iggi Pop. Third: Collar
Time: 2-01.93 Won by 1.50 lengths.
Starting price: $1.80

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Honey Toast ($1.80) dominated both the betting and the race itself to run out a very comfortable winner of the 2016 edition of the Toowoomba Cup.

Punters weren’t alone in thinking they had identified the best horse in the race. Honey Toast’s jockey Jim Byrne clearly shared the majority view and he rode his race accordingly, keeping the favourite just two to three lengths shy of the lead for much of the trip before moving up to take control of the race approaching the home turn.

Byrne pushed Honey Toast out in the home stretch, keeping him honest all the way to the line while laying down the law to his rivals and it was already apparent halfway up the straight that Honey Toast had the race well within his keeping and that that chase behind him would only be for the minor placings.

Iggi Pop ($13), who was running on from behind at the death, and Collar ($21), who kept fighting a lost cause in the home straight, had their efforts rewarded with a second and third placing respectively.

Honey Toast, who has two wins and two runner-up finishes from his last four starts, now has an overall race record of nine wins and six minor placings from twenty-two starts. To date the gelding has banked $331 825 in stake earnings.

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TRAINER BEN CURRIE:

“Probably from the Townsville Cup win onwards (back in September) we were looking at what we were going to do with him.

“The Toowoomba Cup was probably always Plan A. When he won quite impressively at 2200 at Doomben in February we thought about going to the Adelaide Cup.

Obviously that’s big money and it was a Group 2 ... probably a winnable Group 2 down there. That’s easy to say now that Signoff didn’t run.

“We had a think about it. I thought I would like to try him at that sort of trip one day because he relaxes so well. You know, he is definitely a stayer ... but then I thought, look, Signoff had won that race before and, at the time, looked like it was going to go there. I thought it was a long way to go to race Signoff.

“So, I said to the connections that if we gave him a bit of a freshen up and just kept to Plan A and race in the Toowoomba Cup, which I had originally targeted, and kept him ready for the winter then we could probably race right through the carnival.

“We obviously get more bites at the cherry doing it that way.

“There are a lot of owners but they generally just leave it up to me to do whatever I want.

I do let them know what I’m thinking to keep them in the loop but, as I say, the decision is up to me.

“I was very confident going into the race. To be fair I thought it was a pretty average Toowoomba Cup field.

There were some older horses in there who hadn’t won for a while. No disrespect to them, but my horse is sort of on the up. He is still unbeaten beyond 2000m. He comes up with barrier four. He gets in with 56kg. He just ticked all the boxes for me.

“That’s why I was confident, but you’ve still got to go out and win it.

“He really won well. When you watch them live though you never really get the sense that you’ve got it won in the straight.

You are always waiting for something to come at you late because you’ve been touched off so many times ... but when you watch the replay, obviously knowing the result, you can look at it differently and realise that he probably was a good thing from a long way out.

“I’ve had a bit of a look ahead.

“I thought maybe the Ipswich Cup / Sunshine Cups might be the go, but the way the programming works now there is probably not much for him in the next two or three weeks.

“So, I’m thinking I might even go three weeks and run him in the Hollindale. It’s 1800m. I’d probably prefer it further but that run would probably tell us where we are at.

Obviously if it is a strong year we won’t worry about it, but at least then we will know whether we have a crack at the Doomben Cup or whether we scale back again and go for the Ipswich Cup.

“He was definitely nowhere near his bottom in his win. He’s pulled up super. I think he will even come on from the run.”

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STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:

Rabasco – As P. Hammersley was to be overweight, L. Rolls was substituted as the rider of the horse. Jockey Hammersley was fined $200. L. Rolls was reprimanded for using his whip more than 5 times prior to the 100m. Uno Five – Began awkwardly. Volkhere – Began awkwardly. After being caught very wide on the track was ridden forward approaching the 1200m to obtain a position closer to the rails, however when unable to cross was forced to race three wide for the remainder of the event.

Apprentice J. Orman reported at scale the gelding never travelled well throughout the event. A post race veterinary examination failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.

Instrumentalist – Passing the winning post on the first occasion was forced to steady to avoid the heels of another runner when placed in restricted room for a short distance. Laid in rounding the home turn. Raced wide. Goldoni – Raced wide. Nissile – Raced wide.

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