HUNDRED-UP FOR JASMINE CORNISH

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 9, 2022

It was a special victory for Jasmine Cornish when the Les Ross trained Alert State won a QTIS Two-Year-Old handicap over 1100m at Beaudesert on July 9 … as the young riders personal scoreboard ticked over to one hundred winners.

Getting to that landmark win, as quickly as Cornish has, absolutely stands to her credit.

A four-horse race, as was the case here, can often be tactically demanding and the only time you know you have made the right call in that regard is when you pass the post.

The way the race unfolded was typical of that scenario.
Cornish jumped Alert State ($2.70) into the lead at the break but, by the time the field had gone 300m, Alert State had gone back to last, albeit only two to three lengths off the new leader, the $2.20 favourite Silvanna’s Song.

Halfway through the 1100m contest, Alert State was up to third and, by the time the field straightened for home Alert State had joined in a line of three runners vying for the honours.

These three runners had stretched right across the track with Cornish deliberately taking Alert State widest of all.

As Silvanna’s Song fell away early in the straight, it became a straight two-way contest between Alert State and the Kelly Schweida trained April In Augusta and, with Cornish pushing her mount out strongly … only hands and heels … in the concluding stages, Alert State got the better of April In August allowing the daughter of Defcon to claim her second victory in only her sixth career start … and to put Cornish’s landmark victory into the record books.
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"Nobody had to tell me it was my hundredth winner,” said Cornish, talking about the win. “I’ve been keeping count. I’ve got a book where I’ve been writing all of my winners … where I have got the horse’s name, the trainer, the date and the track.

“It was a bit of a battle down the straight (between Alert State and April In Augusta). I just couldn’t quite get my horse’s head past Lani. Lani Fancourt (the rider of April In Augusta) thought that I had already beaten her 100m out but, no, I only just got there.

"It was like my horse was sticking to the other horse. It just didn’t want to out her head in front and I was just willing it to get there thinking, ‘please I need this hundred’ … and we got it!

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