AIN'T SHE LOVELY LIVES UP TO HER LOOKS

By Graham Potter | Thursday, May 5, 2022

The John Zielke trained Ain’t She Lovely, a $21 chance, proved too strong for her rivals in a BM62 Handicap over 1100m at Gatton on May 5.

Zielke entrusted top apprentice Jasmine Cornish with the ride on Ain’t She Lovely for the first time and horse and rider defied the long odds with an inch perfect front-running performance which saw the good-looking chestnut filly hold on to win by a half-length margin from the faster finishing Miss Barty ($4.80).

Cornish certainly does get horses to jump well … whatever their price … and this was no exception as Cornish urged Ain’t She Lovely into the lead early.

With blond mane bouncing along to the rhythm being pounded out by (hind) legs adorned with flashy white socks, Ain’t She Lovely had the $1.90 favourite Kindling Spirit keeping her close company towards her outside … and the bulk of the field bunched up behind her … but she never shirked the task and when she was asked to lengthen her stride on straightening by Cornish, she responded on cue … and she kept responding in spirited fashion.

It was only over the final 50m that her leading margin was cut back by Miss Barty and Kindling Spirit, but, as strong as their respective finishing efforts were, they had been produced too late to have a major say in the result with the win now safely in the record books alongside Ain’t She Lovely’s name.

This was Ain’t She Lovely’s third win from ten starts.
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Two days earlier, on May 3 at Warwick, Cornish picked up two third places from the four rides she had on the card.

She finished third on the Greg Cornish trained Bold Ransom, which was the lightly raced three-year-old’s fourth placing from only six starts, and she also finished third on the Matt Kropp trained Laurie.

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