SACRED OATH FINISHES SECOND ON DEBUT

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, February 16, 2022

A racehorse doesn’t know what its starting price is, and it also doesn’t know who is in its ownership group, but that doesn’t mean a keener interest than usual is not taken in a horse coming out for the first time when that ownership group is padded with celebrities and media play up that part of proceedings.

It didn’t matter at all that it was Shane Warne’s name filling the headlines on the story of the first-timer Sacred Oath, who trainer David Vandyke first sent into race action in a Maiden Handicap over 1350m at Doomben on February 16.

While the press was lapping up the side story, all of the stable’s attention was focussed on giving the son of Sacred Falls the best preparation they could leading into his debut run (he finished second in a trial a month earlier – on January 11) and then presenting him on the day in the best condition to try and execute a winning plan.

On a track rated as soft, Sacred Oath started second favourite at $2.80 behind Huriwai ($2.45).

Sacred Oath jumped well enough from barrier three, but speed inside him kept him three wide in the early part before Ryan Maloney was able to ease him forward into a more comfortable position to settle in third spot, where he trailed the front-running A Call From Heaven ($7) by margins varying between two and three lengths all the way in the long sweep to the home turn.

Sacred Oath was up to second place on straightening and now chasing hard as A Call To Heaven tried to kick away in the early part of the straight. Halfway up the final run in though, Sacred Oath was closing on A Call To Heaven and, at the 150m mark, it looked as if the Vandyke trained runner had momentum on his side.

Sacred Oath was all but alongside A Call To Heaven coming through the 100m mark, but A Call To Heaven simply refused to give in and she continued to hold Sacred Oath at bay over the concluding stages, rallying back to win by a 0.30 length margin.

While there is always some disappointment in scoring a close-up second place finish, the fact that the A Call To Heaven / Sacred Oath battle had carried these two runners five lengths clear of the third placed finisher underlines the relative strength of the performances of the first two horses past the post.

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