DOOM OCT 24 - SHOOTING SCENE GUNS DOWN OPPOSITION

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Doomben, October 24, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - True.
Class 6 Handicap (4yo and up) - 1615m. Time: 1-37.05
1 Shooting Scene; 2 Seesawing; 3 Bradfield.

The Lawrie Mayfield-Smith trained Shooting Scene came good, after two successive runner-up finishes in his previous two starts, when he outgunned his opposition in a spirited chase over the final 150m to claim the sixth victory of his career.

You wouldn’t have put money down on the horse 200m from home. It was not that Shooting Scene wasn’t in contention, but rather it was the fact that he appeared to have hit a flat spot that was the point of concern.

It had been a muddling race for the six-year-old up until then. An ordinary start left Shooting Scene racing in the second half of the field, caught wide, early. Then when the speed slowed in the back straight as apprentice Luke Rolls on Mystic Vibe tried to back the field up, apprentice jockey Michael Hellyer elected to push Shooting Scene right up around runners before settling his mount in second spot alongside the leader.

Approaching the turn Shooting Scene lost some ground on the leader again. On straightening he was still not improving his position. With Mystic Vibe kicking up front, Bradfield challenging along the inside, the short-priced favourite Cornwall Park apparently coming into the race at the right time and Seesawing also starting to quicken up nicely, Shooting Scene looked for all the world to be a horse under pressure.

Hellyer never gave up on him though. The spark came when Pleasure Time, who was also running on, tried to push through a narrow gap between Shooting Scene and Caldwall Park at the 180m. You could see Shooting Scene resolve set in as Pleasure Time tried to go past him. Shooting Scene picked up the pace immediately. By the 150m he was in full cry and, with the runners around him starting to feel the pressure themselves, Hellyer urged Shooting Scene to the front to secure a hard-fought victory by 0.30 lengths.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Lawrie Mayfield-Smith: “I had to keep him sort of fresh, because he is not really a miler. He is looking for further. I gave him a small let-up and he ran a good race first-up when he ran second (when 0.75 lengths behind Loves A Challenge over 1600m). I kept him as fresh as I possibly could and he’s delivered, you know.

“He is a very, very lazy horse and I said to the kid (apprentice jockey Michael Hellyer), work on this over-time. I said you have got to ride him hard early and you have got to ride him hard from the three ... which he did. He is a good little rider this bloke. It always worried me this new whip rule with this horse because he is such a lazy horse.”

Apprentice jockey Michael Hellyer: “I was very lucky. He is a very lazy horse and I just couldn’t get him going early enough. I was just fortunate enough they slowed up on the pace. I was able to go around them and get a good possie.

“Just from the 600 I had to work on him a fair bit. He was going nowhere. To be honest, when I got to the 400 I thought I might be a place chance here. I didn’t think I was going to get to the leader. At the furlong he actually did dig deep. I could feel him picking up his legs and he got them at the end. I daresay he’s just looking for that bit further now.”

Alan Bailey (trainer of the well-beaten, short-priced favourite Cornwall Park, who surrendered his unbeaten record - speaking half-an-hour after the race): “No, he was disappointing and he’s got heat stress again. He got it here last time and he was able to win, but today ... he’s got it worse today and going over a bit more ground ... yeah, he’s elevated his heart rate. It’s very elevated, and the vet’s going back to look at him again. They’ve got him in the air conditioning down there. Yeah, it could be a bit of a problem.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Shooting Scene): 10.00 steady.
Favourite (Cornwall Park): 1.60 out to 1.70. Finished sixth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Connections of Bradfield advised stewards that the horse would be ridden closer to the lead today. Three Tenors (S. Apthorpe) was slow to begin. Life’s Short (J. Taylor) over-raced in the middle stages.

Shooting Scene was obliged to race three wide in the early stages and therefore apprentice M. Hellyer allowed the gelding to improve forward to a position outside the leader.

Stewards sought an explanation from G. Colless in regard to the disappointing performance of Cornwall Park He stated that the horse travelled comfortably in a good position just off the speed and leaving the 500m he shifted wider on the track in order to improve his position. G. Colless added that the horse accelerated for a short distance rounding the home turn however commenced to tire midway into the straight and proved very disappointing. Trainer A. Bailey was unable to offer any excuses for the performance of Cornwall Park and advised that he would now spell the gelding. A post-race veterinary examination of Cornwall Park revealed the gelding to be slightly distressed.

Stewards sought an explanation from R. Wiggins, rider of Loves A Challenge in respect of the gelding's performance today. R. Wiggins stated that the tempo of the race did not suit Loves A Challenge and added that he was held up at a vital stage of the race on the home turn on the heels of Dubai Oasis and to the inside of Seesawing. R. Wiggins further stated that in his opinion the horse was better suited to a larger track. A post-race veterinary examination of Loves A Challenge failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.