EF NOV 25 - LURID TOO CLASSY IN QUEENSLAND DEBUT

By Graham Potter | Thursday, November 26, 2009

Eagle Farm, November 25, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 10.5m.
Maiden Handicap - 1200m. Time: 1-10.73.
1 Lurid; 2 Belltone; 3 Vette.

The well-supported Lurid landed his first career win in his first start for the Tony Crane stable.

Jockey Brad Stewart gave the four-year-old the run of the race, sitting on the rails, hard-held right on the heels of the early leader Golden Cash and just inside Vette who was positioned in second place.

As they rounded the turn Golden Cash shifted ground outward leaving the Lurid a clear, straight run for the line. Vette made a play for the lead early in the straight, but Lurid had far superior fire-power at his disposal and the favourite blasted his way into the lead and he effectively sealed the result in a matter of strides.

Vette and Golden Cash stayed on briefly, but there race was run and it was left to Belltone, who took a split between the Vette and Golden Cash, to come out and chase Lurid over the final 100m. Belltone was game enough, but his effort was only worth second place on the day as Lurid proved to be too classy for his opposition as he cruised home to a comfortable victory.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Tony Crane: “He’s a nice little horse. We picked him up the William Inglis sales. He was a Darley horse before. Peter Snowden had him. We got him for $20000. He’s paid for himself today with the prize-money and the fact that the boys have had a couple of dollars on him.

“A few of the boys who are in Jujulio just said they’d like to find another one to race, so we had a look at him. We liked what we saw.

“He had a little bit of a drama when he first got here so he took a little bit of time to get right, but he’s certainly right today. Ah mate, he just had a little feet issue ... not bad, like he just had a bit of an abscess in there. It’s right as rain now. But then we had to scratch him last week because his blood wasn’t quite right.

“Yeah, we put the blinkers on. He sort of wanted to look around at everything up here. Put the blinkers on and away he went!

“I’m just going to put him through his classes. I think he is a nice horse, but he is a little bit dumb yet. This was only his sixth start. We’ll take him up to the Sunshine Coast and give him a look up there in a Class 1.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Lurid): 2.10 in to 1.70 out to 2.00.
The winner as the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Street Wise (M. Palmer), Lucky Latar (App C. McIver) and Lady Kilkenny (M. Cahill) were all tightened for room at the start between Been Naughty (C. Reith) and Vette (J. Byrne), which shifted in. Yamacutta (G. Geran) jumped away awkwardly.

Shortly after the start Lucky Latar had to be steadied away from the heels of Been Naughty. After missing the start Yamacutta raced very ungenerously and on occasions got its head up.

Golden Cash (K. Purdy) hung out throughout the race and on straightening forced Vette wider on the track. As a result of Golden Cash hanging out Lurid secured a run to that horse's inside on straightening.

Belltone (B. Pengelly) was hampered rounding the 300m when Golden Cash was hanging out. Trainer M. Thexton was advised that Golden Cash would have to barrier trial on at least two occasions to the satisfaction of stewards before being permitted to race again. Been Naughty and Street Wise raced wide for the majority of the event.