HAVE WE ALREADY SEEN THE RIDE OF THE CARNIVAL?

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, June 1, 2021

If there was a prize for the best ride at the Queensland Winter Carnival, that competition effectively ended just after four o’clock on the afternoon Saturday of Saturday May 29.

Yes, the Carnival is far from over … it hasn’t even reached its peak yet … but where else are you going to find a better ride than Jamie Kah’s effort aboard Vega One in the Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Cup.

Kah took Vega One back from his wide gate and the Tony Gollan trained runner raced at the rear of the field all the way to the home turn. On straightening Kah had Vega One heading in-between runners and that’s when the first hiccup occurred as Victorem shifted out marginally early in the straight forcing Kah to take hold of Vega One briefly and reconsider her line.

Kah already had done a magnificent job in keeping Vega One’s loss of momentum to a minimum in that exchange … as small an adjustment as it was, it could have been terminal if Kah had overreacted, but there was more to come.

Back in full cry and steaming down the centre of the track, Vega One still had in the order of six lengths to make up and he clearly was prepared to give that challenge a full go but, once again he would need a help from Kah to keep his chance of victory alive.

Just when it looked like Vega One was about to run into a dead-end as he closed quickly onto the heels of Trekking in the closing stages, with Victorem still limiting Vega One’s galloping room to his outside, a deft flick of the wrists from Kah angled Vega One in between Trekking and Victorem, without breaking stride.

Vega One was finally in clear air, but he only had 75m left in which to run down the duelling leaders Jonker and Signore Fox … and, with his momentum now reaching a crescendo, Vega One was good enough to do just that. Quite amazingly, from looking to have no chance at the 200m, Vega One and Kah won by a comfortable half-length margin.

Post-race Kah praised jockey Glen Boss, who rode Vega One in his two previous starts, for the invaluable advice he passed on to Kah.

‘I have got to thank Bossy,” said Kah. “He came up and told me everything about this horse.

“I wanted to get held up on him … because if you expose him, he thinks about it. So, thanks for Bossy for letting me know all of his little tricks.

“Like I said, I wanted to get held up on him … but not that much,” said Kah. “I needed a run desperately in the end. It was amazing!”

Glen Boss’s tips on how best to ride Vega One was spot on, but even he watching the race (Boss did not have a ride in the Kingsford-Smith) must have thought it was a lost cause when traffic problems threatened to short-circuit Vega One’s late dash for glory.

Not only did Kah have to thread a path, but Vega One had to fire on cue for the Group 1 victory to become a reality and that’s exactly what Kah and Vega One combined to do in such a scintillating fashion.

Planning and execution are two different things.

This time, Kah’s execution of the plan might just hold its ground as the best ride of the Carnival!

More articles