THREE FEATURE RACE PLACINGS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, June 18, 2022

Trainer David Vandyke saddled three feature race place getters at the Ipswich Cup race meeting on June 18.

Street Dancer:

The Pride Of Dubai chestnut finished third, just 1.30 lengths behind the winner Smart Meteor in the Listed Ipswich Cup. Tucked in nicely enough not far off the speed, which was set by his stable companion Spencer in the early part, Street Dancer was five-wide on cornering, and he produced a steady, sustained run in the straight, but he could not go with Smart Meteor and Our Intrigue who finished strongly on the outside of Street Dancer leaving the Vandyke runner having to settle for third place. In doing so, Street Dancer maintained the proud record he has under David Vandyke, which shows three wins, a second, two thirds and a fourth place in seven runs for the stable.

Desert Lord:

The son of High Chaparral finished a game second in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes. Ryan Maloney settled the seven-year-old just worse than midfield in the early part. Halfway through the contest Holyfield took up the running at the head of affairs, a position he was going to maintain all the way to the line. Desert Lord, for his part, made ground in the sweep to the home turn and, after cornering five wide, he proceeded to run on strongly, but the seven lengths he had left to make up on Holyfield was too big a task. The fact that Desert Lord got that deficit down to just a 1.50 length margin at the line speaks volumes for his effort when running in from behind. This was Desert Lord’s eleventh placed run, to go with his eight career wins from thirty-one starts.

Maybe The Best:

Maybe The Best’s second place in the Listed Gai Waterhouse was arguably one of the runs of the meeting. Watch the replay. See the rate of speed with which Maybe The Best was hitting the line and look how far in front she was just a stride past the post. It was a rattling finish. Fourth then fifth early, Maybe The Best trailed the leader (Centrefire) by some five lengths mid-race. When Centrefire tried to pinch the race by extending early in the sweep to the turn, Kyle Wilson-Taylor was alert to the danger and he got more urgent on Maybe The Best, but he was still faced with a big deficit on straightening. Maybe The Best’s acceleration over the final 200m was explosive and she dashed up late to force a photo-finish which showed she has just failed to get up by the narrowest of margins. Any way you look at it, this was a really eye-catching effort.

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