DOOM NOV 07 - SWORD OF DAMOCLES SHINES BRIGHTLY

By Graham Potter | Monday, November 9, 2009

Doomben, November 7, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 4m.
Class 6 Handicap - 1200m. Time: 1-09.91.
1 Sword Of Damocles; 2 Another Takeover; 3 The Crusader.

Take a bow Jackie Crompton!

The Toowoomba based trainer goes about her business very quietly and tends to fly under the radar in skies saturated with more high profile conditioners, but boy how good a job is she doing with the five-year-old gelding Sword Of Damocles?

The son of Mossman has now won three-in-a-row. His overall record stands at seven wins from sixteen starts (with three runner-up finishes) and his stake earnings now exceed $100000. That translates into a tidy bit of work from the trainer and her team.

Jockey Tony Pattillo has been in the saddle in all four runs this prep. He has helped fine-tune Sword Of Damocles in terms of the horse’s education and he has clearly struck up a mutual understanding with his mount and established the grounds on which the best results can be obtained.

Here, jumping from the widest barrier which already in theory compromised his chances, Pattillo kept his options open. From the jump, he gradually edged Sword Of Damocles forward. With nobody keen to lead, Pattillo started to push Sword Of Damocles out and the five-year-old slipped into the lead without facing any undue pressure.

That pressure was not far away though. The Crusader had allowed Sword Of Damocles to go past and then settled in, taking the trail. On the turn the Barry Baldwin trained runner moved up alongside Sword Of Damocles and suddenly the race was on in earnest - and that’s just how Sword Of Damocles likes it.

Try as he might The Crusader failed to tame Sword Of Damocles, whose resolute gallop in the straight has been a feature of all of his recent wins. There is a stubbornness there ... a refusal to give ground ... and that stubbornness is backed up by his ability to take the fight to the opposition and to give his all until the finishing line brings an end to the contest.

As he did here. Sword Of Damocles shrugged off The Crusader, but still kept kicking under a strong hands and heels ride from Pattillo. He needed to because Another Takeover emerged as a major threat inside the final 75m. The latter dived late and only missed by the narrowest of margins as Sword Of Damocles held on by a nose to bravely extend his winning sequence.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Jackie Crompton: “He’s been a lot of fun. We’ve had him since he was a yearling. We bought him at the Magic Millions sale and we’ve educated him all the way through.

“He’s just really started to grow up. He was always a little bit on the toe and he always wanted to race a bit fiercely. He’s just started to settle down now and he can go back in the races or he can go forward, so it’s nice to have those options.”

Jockey Tony Pattillo: “Yeah, you know, from the wide barrier ... heading into the first corner I could see myself sort of, at best, three wide. The boys in front just started to put out the anchors and I thought well, I’ll just take this chance now to sort of go forward. It was just going to be bold move or a dumb move, you know, depending on how it worked out.

“I really only had to work for about 150m. I went forward and I took it up. From there on in, like the horse just come back to me beautifully. As I said at the start of his preparation to Jackie (Crompton), this is his preparation for the horse to go on and be the sort of horse we expect him to be.

“We spent a lot of the last preparation trying to get him to race properly. Today I was just close enough so, when the speed came off, I could make that move and sort of pick up that two lengths without really revving him. I knew if I could do that without revving him that he would come back to me, because that’s the way we’ve been riding him.

“So, yeah, it’s just a whole preparation of planning has come together for a win today and I still think there are more things in store for him.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Sword Of Damocles): 12.00 out to 13.00.
Favourite (Another Takeover): 3.60 out to 3.80. Finished second.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Intertheblack (M. Speers) and Mr Tombola (B. Powell) were slow to begin. Approaching the first turn, Equates (C. McIver) improved on to the heels of The Crusader (J. Bowditch) and had to be checked when the pace eased. Also approaching the first turn Monashee Mountain (R. McMahon) had to be steadied off the heels of Leapfrog (L. Rolls).

Montgresin (A. Spinks), Hello Christmas (M. Palmer) and Come Said The Boy (M. Hellyer) raced wide for the majority of the event.

When questioned regarding the disappointing performance of Cat D’Antibes, G. Colless was unable to offer any excuses, and trainer G. Heinrich indicated she would have a series of tests carried out on the horse, including a scoping and ECG, and that she would provide the results of those tests to stewards. A post-race veterinary examination of Cat D’Antibes failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.

A post-race veterinary examination of Hello Christmas revealed a small laceration to its muzzle.