WHITEWATER SCORES A HARD-FOUGHT WIN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, June 25, 2022

The David Vandyke trained Whitewater kicked off Tatts Tiara Day at Eagle Farm on June 25 … the final day of the Brisbane racing Carnival … with a hard-fought win in the opening race on the card, a Class 3 Handicap over 1600m.

Coming into the race, Whitewater had won two of his previous seven starts (in Maiden and Class 1 company). He had also put his toe in the water in Group 2 company in the Queensland Guineas, but he was found wanting at that level at this stage.

Back to the safer, natural progression from where he left off with his last win, Whitewater was sent out as second favourite at a starting price of $5.50 in what appeared to stack up as a fairly open race.

Jim Byrne took Whitewater right back from the worst of the draw (barrier 11) at the jump. He then tucked Whitewater in, two off the rail and just under five lengths off the lead in the early part.

Under an ultra-patient ride, Byrne was content to allow Whitewater to drop back to last as the race unfolded further and, when the field reached the halfway mark, the Vandyke runner was loping along at the rear of proceedings looking quite comfortable … but now a full eight to nine lengths off the front-runners.

Byrne waited until the 600m mark to make his move … and it was a pretty decisive one as he pushed Whitewater forward at a vastly increased tempo to make up ground very quickly in the sweep to the home turn, albeit racing six-wide.

Whitewater straightened with a little over three lengths to find on the leader, Field Regiment ($10), but it was not Field Regiment, who would soon weaken, that Byrne had to worry about. It was Bold Pedro, who was two lengths ahead of Whitewater at that stage, who would prove the real testing ground.

It didn’t seem that way when Whitewater quickly moved up alongside Bold Pedro early in the straight, but when Bold Pedro responded to Whitewater’s presence, these two runners joined issue in a private battle which carried them right away from the other runners.

The question now was whether Whitewater would be able to sustain what had become a very long run.

He had to be brave a committed to do so … there was no room for error as Bold Pedro was sticking to him like glue … but committed he was and, with the help of a very strong ride by Jim Byrne, Whitewater, who had established a narrow advantage from just inside the 200m mark, kept his nose in front on the line to secure a very tough victory.

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