THERE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS OF PUTTING A DOUBLE ON THE SCOREBOARD IN RACING

By Graham Potter | Thursday, September 8, 2022

There are different ways you can put a double on the scoreboard in racing.

Take young apprentice Jasmine Cornish for example.

Cornish rode the winner of the last race at Eagle Farm on Wednesday, September 7 and she then won the first race at the Sunshine Coast on Thursday, September 8 … making it a race to race double, if you like, at two different meetings.

But Cornish wasn’t finished yet. She went on to win the last race at that Sunshine Coast meeting, thus making it a separate double on the day as she bookended the meeting.

Whichever way you look at it, these three wins represented a fine run of form, particularly as they came on the back of the eight wins Cornish had already posted since August 20 … that’s eleven wins in nineteen days … which is not too shabby by anyone’s standards.

Over those nineteen days, Cornish rode a winner at no less than nine of the thirteen meetings in which she had riding engagements, producing a winning strike-rate of twenty-three percent and a place strike rate of thirty-seven percent … and, it is worth noting, twenty-two … or forty-six percent … of her forty-eight rides started at double figure odds.
_____________________________________________________________________

Cornish was having her first ride on the Cameron Richardson trained Zuma California when she piloted the Statue Of Liberty gelding to a facile win in a BM65 Handicap over 1200m at Eagle Farm on September 7.

Zuma California showed good ability from the outset of his career, winning his first two starts before finishing second to the useful Far Too Easy (who has now won five of his ten starts) in the $130 000 Winning Rupert Plate in his third outing.

He had another four starts in that preparation, for one second place, before being spelled … and on his return he went straight to town where he gained two encouraging results, finishing third to Legal Esprit (over 1050m) and fourth to Sweet Margot May (over 1000m).

Then it was on to this, his latest challenge where he stepped up to 1200m and came down in class.

Those last two run had given notice of better things to comes and so it proved as Zuma California, who started favourite at $2.50 with the aid of Cornish’s 3kg claim helping offset the topweight of 60.5kg that Zuma California had been set to carry, duly saluted in relatively untroubled fashion, coming home 1.75 lengths clear of his nearest rival.

Cornish jumped Zuma California well from barrier number one which allowed the four-year-old to get the run of the race, tracking the speed in third place, just two lengths off the leader.

Zuma California held that position, saving ground, until the home turn and, when the inside passage opened up for Zuma California on straightening, Cornish set about measuring Zuma California’s finishing effort to a nicety, gradually hunting down the front-running Moreton Bay ($10) and then heading that one with 150m left to run with race then left at Zuma California’s mercy.

This was Zuma California’s third victory from ten starts and he also has three minor places to his credit.

*For Cornish’s Sunshine Coast double on September 8 … see separate story.

More articles