STREET DANCER RALLIES UNDER RAWILLER TO CLAIM A FOURTH CAREER VICTORY

By Graham Potter | Monday, May 30, 2022

Street Dancer claimed his fourth career victory (and his third win in six starts since transferring to the David Vandyke stable from Anthony Cummings) when he landed a BM80 Handicap over 2200m at Doomben on May 30.

While the stable has had good success on the Poly Track at the Sunshine Coast, not every horse takes to that particular racing surface and when Street Dancer came into this Doomben contest off the back of a seemingly disappointing run (a fourth place) on the Poly Track the hope was that the chestnut would bounce back to his best.

That he did … but he did have a fight on his hands before he was able to secure victory.

The betting reflected a very open race with Outlook favourite at $4.40 and Chakana at $5. Street Dancer was on the third line of betting at $5.50.

Nash Rawiller got Street Dancer away beautifully, but when speed came across from the outside as the field came past the winning post for the first time, Rawiller was content to take up a strategic position, settling in fifth, then sixth, on the rail.

That position had Street Dancer two lengths behind the $20 outsider Accessory who was racing in third spot and when it came down to the business end of affairs it would be these two runners who would fight out a punishing, stride for stride finish.

The $12 chance Lady Solerno, who had surged to the lead on straightening, set the target in the home straight, but she was a spent force coming to the 200m where Accessory gained the upper hand, travelling very smoothly.

Accessory now had the hard charging Street Dancer in tow though, and the Vandyke trained runner kept responding to the aggressive riding of Nash Rawiller to slowly eat into Accessory’s advantage.

Even when Street Dancer ranged alongside Accessory it was still far from mission accomplished and these two runners, with the race to themselves, joined issue for a number of strides before Rawiller pushed Street Dancer into the lead only 50m from the line to score by a 0.40 length margin.

Street Dancer’s wins for David Vandyke have come over 2060m, 2218m and 2200m and the son of Pride Of Dubai has won on both good and heavy going.

His overall race record now stands at four wins from fifteen starts (and four minor placings) with a more than useful $207 315 banked in prize-money.

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