DOOM AUG 29 - PINS ON PARADE RELISHES CHANGE OF SCENERY

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Monday, August 31, 2009

Doomben, August 29.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 5.5m.
Class 6 Plate (Set Weights) - 1200m. Time: 1-10.02.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 5.5m.
1 Pins On Parade; 2 Heart Of The Citi; 3 Baqaba.

Trainer Kris Lees’s plan to scout north of Sydney with Pins On Parade in search of a dry track paid dividends when the gelding raced to a comfortable two length victory at Doomben. The five-year-old was well supported in the betting and he started as a clear-cut favourite.

The money was spot-on and never in any trouble once jockey Brad Pengelly successfully brought him Pins On Parade across from an outside draw to join Borsha’s Mark at the head of affairs. These two runners matched strides until approaching the turn where Pengelly pushed Pins On Parade past Borsha’s Mark, ready to unleash his finishing effort.

It was all systems go for Pins On Parade on straightening. For a moment it looked like Heart Of The Citi, who had tracked the leading pair and had now moved into a challenging position, would threaten Pins On Parade, but, while the Pat Duff trained runner chased with commitment, he just didn’t have the acceleration required to reel in the winner. Second place was a fair reward for his effort.

The third placed Baqaba was the runner finishing best of all. Steve Tregea’s runner, who was well placed just behind Heart of The Citi turning for home, appeared to mark time for a good part of the straight and only seemed to get going late when it was all over.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Jockey Brad Pengelly: “The plan was to just let him find his feet and roll forward. He’d not blessed with a lot of brains, I was told by (trainer) Kris Lees this morning, so the best thing to do was to keep him happy and they weren’t going that quick. The plan was to lead, but he sort of...I just took my time sort of getting across.

“It seemed that he wasn’t thinking at all. That was the main thing with him. He finished the race off quite nicely. He’s been hanging and doing things wrong in his races so obviously the penny is starting to drop ... but he’s got a long way to go to be at the level where he should be.

“He’s been better company than this. Kris is an astute trainer and he was weighted to win the race, so it was pleasing that he did.”

RUNNER-UP FEEDBACK:
Pat Duff (trainer of Heart of the Citi who backed up after winning last Saturday): “I think coming back to 1200m off the 1350m ... it was just a week apart and they outsprinted him and he met a very good horse. I certainly wasn’t disappointed. He was there, but when they let down ... I mean they got home in 34-something ... I think they just outsprinted him. So I think he is now ready to go to the 1400. He is looking for that step up in distance.”

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Sir Kingsford (D. Brown), Viking Storm and Tears’N’Cheers (S. Seamer) were slow into stride. Turn And Burn (A. Erhart), which raced wide throughout, was inclined to pull hard in the middle stages. Inside the 100m, Encosta Tszyu (J. Bowditch) and Tears’N’Cheers (S. Seamer) attempted to take a similar run between Baqaba (L. Cassidy) and Hello Christmas (A. Spinks) and bumped as a result of making contact. Tears’N’Cheers became unbalanced and lost ground in this incident.