SCST OCT 25 - TOO EASY FOR CHAR INNOCENT

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Sunshine Coast, October 25, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 8m.
Class 2 Handicap - 2200m. Time: 2-21.24.
1 Char Innocent; 2 Real World; 3 Bloodhound.

While there were no stars in this line-up, the best you can do is win your race and this contest proved to be an all too easy task for the Mark Palmer trained Char Innocent.

Jockey Stathi Katsidis settled the mare on the rail just off the speed in third place. The six-year-old pushed forward into second place on the turn and proceeded to run down the long-time leader Real World, getting to the front at the 180m mark and striding away to a clear-cut 3.00 length victory.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Mark Palmer: “The last two runs were good runs ... battling runs. It’s getting a bit hot. Like, now it’s going to get a bit hot for her, because she’s a mare, so we thought we would give her a tilt at a longer journey and then give her a spell.

“We weren’t sure whether she’d run the 2200 or not. There was a bit of scepticism about it, but the result is there and that’s good. I did instruct him (Stathi Katsidis) to be running third on the fence. She was ridden that way two starts ago down on the Gold Coast and she battled on very strongly that day, so we thought that would give her her best chance.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Char Innocent): 5.00 out to 5.50.
Favourite (Under The Counter): 2.70 out to 3.10. Finished fourth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
As K. Pope was to be overweight, A. Spinks was substituted as the rider of Vistula Belle. K. Pope was fined $100. Bearhug (J. Taylor) was slow to begin. Seebohm (I. Coombes) was inclined to hang out rounding the first turn. Vistula Belle (A. Spinks) blundered shortly after the start. Bloodhound (M. Hellyer) commenced to race ungenerously on the turn out of the straight. Under The Counter (J. Byrne) over-raced in the early stages. Bearhug (J. Taylor) shifted in, brushing the running rail at the 800m and again at the 600m.

K. Wharton, rider of Real World, pleaded guilty to a charge of careless riding, in that at approximately the 1300m he permitted his mount to shift in when insufficiently clear of Brigadoon Champ (P. Hammersley), resulting in that gelding having to be checked. K. Wharton was suspended from riding in races for a period covered by 6 meetings, to commence at midnight, 31 October, and to expire at midnight, 7 November 2009.