BEAUDESERT DOUBLE FOR CORNISH

By Graham Potter | Monday, October 3, 2022

With the substantial amount of travel that jockeys have to do these days in order to successfully ply their trade, it is always a pleasure for jockey to be able to avoid a long drive when racing takes place on their doorstep … and it is even better when they come away with a couple of winners on the day.

That was the scenario enjoyed by Jasmine Cornish at Beaudesert on the Queen’s Birthday Holiday on October 3, where the young rider saluted on the Greg Cornish trained Bay Of Dragons and the Corey and Kylie Geran trained October Joy … with these two wins pushing Cornish into second place on the Queensland State Provincial Jockey Premiership (three wins behind Nathan day) and to the top of the Queensland State Provincial Apprentice Jockey Premiership, a title she won last season.
_______________________________________________________________________

Bay Of Dragons, who was first-up after a lengthy after a nine-and-a-half month layoff, only had two rivals to contend with in a Class 4 Handicap over 1100m … and that became only one rival when the outsider of the field, Grace In Time ($6.50), lost his rider at the 600m mark.
That left Bay Of Dragons (second favourite at $2.90) and the main fancy Sip It Slow ($1.65) in what was an essentially a match race for the remainder of the contest.

Bay Of Dragons had led from the start and Cornish ensured that the daughter of Hidden Dragon maintained a useful advantage all through the sweep to the home turn and into the straight.

The lead was two lengths between the 200m mark and the 100m mark but, from there, Sip It Slowly started closing ground, gradually at first … and then with real meaning over the concluding stages where Bay Of Dragons only just had enough in hand to see off Sip It Slowly’s determined late challenge by a fast diminishing, narrow margin.

Bay Of Dragons, a seven-year-old, is a five-time winner and she has banked $110 430 in prize-money.
_____________________________________________________________________

October Joy, for her part, was only having her second start since transferring to the Corey and Kylie Geran stable.

The change of scenery certainly seems to have been good for her as, after a series of unplaced runs, she finished third over 2070m at Kilcoy in her first start for the Geran yard and then showed suitable improvement in this follow-up BM62 Handicap over 2540m.

October Joy landed in the leading line and then was pushed forward into second spot towards the inside by Cornish, keeping the narrow leader Tycoon Player ($26) out wider on the track.

When Tycoon Ruler was asked to extend and increase his lead with more than a full circuit still left to race, Cornish was happy to let the outsider go, but maintained a clear second place some two-and-a-half to three lengths back with Cornish biding her time down the home straight for the first time before she decided to shake things up a bit as the field headed out for their final lap.

At that stage Cornish pushed October Joy up to within three-quarters-of-a length of Tycoon Ruler, now to the leader’s outside, and she was happy to maintain that position most of the way down the back straight as these two runners raced a couple lengths clear of the third placed runner.

When the field started to take closer order as Tycoon Ruler began to tire, Cornish could wait no longer on October Joy, and she didn’t hesitate, pushing her mount into a clear lead but, importantly she still had October Joy at a measured gallop, keeping something in reserve as the chase came on in earnest behind her.

Four horses were snapping at October Joy’s heels approaching the home turn but only two … Head Up High ($7) and Jabbar ($4.60) … remained in close attendance when the field straightened for home.

Cornish’s decision to keep something in reserve earlier was now about to pay dividends as October Joy sustained run meant that the chasers were left chasing, without being able to take any edge off October Joy’s advantage with the latters 1.30 length margin of victory aptly summing up what ultimately turned out to be a comfortable win for the October Joy / Geran / Cornish combination.

More articles