EF DEC 02 - NANIWA CAUSES BOILOVER

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Friday, December 4, 2009

Eagle Farm, December 2, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 11.5m.
Class 5 Handicap - 1600m. Time: 1-36.75.
1 Naniwa; 2 Cape Chivas; 3 Forever More.

For what it is worth, Naniwa was the pre-modern name for the Japanese city of Osaka. The horse by the same name made a present day statement by putting in a bold effort all of the way down the home straight to get the better of the two main fancies Cape Chivas (3.90) and Forever More (2.80) by 1.00 length and 1.50 lengths respectively.

Naniwa (17.00) defied the odds in the chase to the line to cause the boil-over, staying on resolutely in a pressurised finish to claim his fourth career win in thirty-three starts. The gelding provided in-form apprentice jockey with his third win in as many rides following his full house of two wins from two rides at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, where his second winner returned a tote win dividend of 48.00.

WINNER FEEDBACK
Trainer Ben Ahrens: “Yeah mate, pretty happy. It was a bit unexpected. We were a bit worried after his last start how he would go today. He hung quite badly last start. He’s just a bit of a temperamental sort of horse. Some days he is on it, some days he’s off. Today he must have been on.

“I have had him last prep and this prep. I took over him I think as a five year-old or something ... so yeah, just a couple of preps. He’s been pretty consistent. He’s a trier. He tries his best, but sometimes he can do a lot wrong.

“Around the country he still put in good runs but he just seemed to get pinged by the weight. So we took him to town and tried to get as much weight off him as we could and it’s done the trick.

“The chiropractor had a look at him last week and that seems to have sorted out his hanging problem. I can’t really explain it. He is just a bit of an enigma sometimes.”

Jockey Justin Wood: “It was real good. Ben (Ahrens) said it was laying out really bad last time the whole race. This race he only hung out a bit ... it was very minor, just at the beginning of the straight when I let him down. He just wanted to lay out just when I first let him go, but then he straightened up once the horse got to his girth and he ran away from them again.

“He jumped good. Stathi Katsidis on Robert Bradshaw’s (Prince Telesto) from the inside went forward and put a bit of pace on. I sat in the box seat, sort of behind him ... just slipped-streamed. I knew it would sort of cave. I looked at it about the 700. It was already off the bit and I thought well we’ll just save up. I slip-lined off him, come out just off his irons so I could just get into some better ground.

“We were still travelling nicely at the front and I thought, if the rails are out and we are still travelling ... if he’s got half a ping this horse, he’s home ... they won’t catch me ... and that’s sort of what happened.

“Yeah, I’ve been having a great time lately.” (This was the young rider’s sixth win in the last ten days). “I feel I could win on a broomstick at the moment.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Naniwa): 14.00 out to 17.00.
Favourite (Forever More): 3.50 in to 2.70 out to 2.80. Finished third.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Forever More (App M. Speers) was slow to begin.

Naniwa (App J. Wood) and Forever More came together and brushed 50m from the finish resulting in both horses shifting ground.

When questioned regarding the disappointing performance of Prince Telesto, which after leading yielded ground to finish at the rear of the field, jockey S. Katsidis was of the opinion that whilst the horse had dropped back in distance it likes to run freely when leading but was unable to open up a break on the field today and due to the going being better wider on the track he had elected to travel wide over the final 1000m. A post race veterinary examination of Prince Telesto revealed no significant abnormalities.