DOOM OCT 31 - DANARDOS BEATS BRADFIELD IN A THRILLER

By Graham Potter | Thursday, November 5, 2009

Doomben, October 31, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 2m.
NMW Handicap - 1615m. Time: 1-37.94.
1 Danardos; 2 Bradfield; 3 Fond Bond.

In the race finish of the afternoon the Kelso Wood trained Danardos got the better of the John Morrisey trained Bradfield after a protracted, punishing stride for stride battle down the entire length of the straight.

Both runners were prominent form the break. Bradfield went into an immediate lead. Danardos settled in the box seat. These two runners held station until the home turn where Bradfield shifted marginally off the rail allowing Danardos to slip up along his inside.

These two runners joined issue 280m out and remained glued together all the way to the line. One hundred and fifty metres out it looked momentarily as if Brad Pengelly and Danardos had gained the ascendency, but Scott Seamer got Bradfield to lift again in spirited fashion to force the result to go right down to the wire.

It was a great, fighting effort by horse and rider - both the winner and the runner-up.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Kelso Wood: “We’ve been beaten in a couple of photos (Danardos was beaten by a nose, a long-neck and a short-half-head in his previous three starts). Today was his turn.

“I wouldn’t have taken the step up from a Wednesday meeting to a Saturday meeting if I wasn’t confident he could cope with it. It’s the same as running a mile, you know. I thought he’d run a mile (Danardos stepped up from 1350m to 1615m) but there’s always some doubt until he does it.

“I tried the step up to 1600m today because, you know ... 1200m are very competitive races. There is more scope if a horse can run 1600m to 2000m, which he is bred to do. It is just a matter of getting him to relax. We pulled the blinkers off and put a tongue-tie on him ... we thought he’s been getting his tongue over the bit ... and it’s worked out here today.

“We’ll just poke along with him. He’s paid up for the Magic Millions. If I can sneak him into something there ... I don’t know yet. We’ll just keep going with him.

“We had a lot of problems with the horse early in the piece ... with unsoundness and things like that. We’ve come through that and got him there, so we’ll just see where we go from here.”

Jockey Brad Pengelly: “There didn’t seem to be a lot of pace in the race, but I expected (John) Morrisey’s horse (Bradfield) to go forward. The race just panned out exactly how I wanted it too.

“My bloke was jumping up to a mile so I wanted to give him as easy as possible a run and he got that, so happy days. He’s still learning the trade, so to speak. He did a few things wrong in races early. We took the blinkers off him. The success comes about all through Kelso (Wood), you know. He fixes the ins-and-outs of each of his individual horses and that’s why he does so well.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Danardos): 4.00 out to 4.20 in to 3.70.
Favourite (Beautiful Lady): 3.00 out to 3.40. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Showciti (B. Stewart) jumped away awkwardly and lost ground. Millers Wheel (D. Brown) was slow to begin. Passing the 1400m, Millers Wheel raced up on to the heels of River Perfume (L. Rolls) and had to be steadied. Near the 600m, Showciti (B. Stewart) improved up on to the heels of Lucky Toss (L. Cassidy) and had to be steadied. Beautiful Day (T. Pannell) over-raced in the early stages of the event. River Perfume (L. Rolls) raced wide throughout.

L. Rolls, rider of River Perfume, explained that he had been instructed to ride River Perfume from a rearward position but was advised that following its Gold Coast run, where it drifted back to the tail of the field, that he would have to take measures to keep the horse in touch with the field today. L. Rolls added that the horse began well and he found himself three wide without cover approaching the first turn and River Perfume was then obliged to race wide for the remainder of the race.