MISHANI PLAYS IT PART IN THE CORNISH SUCCESS STORY

By Graham Potter | Friday, July 29, 2022

Trainer Les Ross and owner Mike Crooks have been solid supporters of Jasmine Cornish and it was only fitting somehow that they should play a part in the home straight in Cornish’s title chase.

Cornish had only had one previous ride aboard the Ross trained Mishani Fraudster and that was a winning one when the duo saluted over 1100m at Ipswich in a BM62 on December 24, 2021. That was also Mishani Fraudster’s only previous start at Ipswich, so effectively Cornish and Mishani Fraudster had a perfect record at the Ipswich track … and they would go on with it when they stepped out to contest a Class 4 Handicap over 1200m at the track on July 29.

Mishani Fraudster had, in fact, won his last start leading into the race. That was first-up, on the Poly Track, after a five month break from racing, so he was presented fitter for that run and gathered enough support on the betting boards to start favourite at $3.40.

Jumping from gate ten could have presented problems, but Mishani Fraudster made light work of that supposed disadvantage, responding to Cornish’s urgings with telling gate speed to spear to the lead with enough of a flourish to be able to comfortably cross the field and move clear to hold an early advantage of two lengths.

From there, it was just a matter of Cornish rating Mishani Fraudster to his best advantage … which is always something easier said than done. Cornish gave the gelding a little bit of a breather mid-race without ever putting his lead at risk, before starting to push Mishani Fraudster out again in the approach to the home turn.

That ensured that Mishani Fraudster was off and running on straightening, as was the $14 chance Mt Brose who set about trying to reel in Mishani Fraudster with some meaning.

The margin between these two runners kept getting less and less the further they galloped down the straight towards the finish, but, in the end, Cornish had indeed rated Mishani Fraudster’s run well enough to get the Ross trained runner home by 0.20 lengths and thus keep their horse/rider combination’s unbeaten record intact.

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