DOOM DEC 09 - SPIRAL GALAXY STARS ON DEBUT

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Friday, December 11, 2009

Doomben, December 9, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 11m.
C,G&E Maiden Handicap - 1200m. Time: 1-10.19.
1 Spiral Galaxy; 2 Vencedor; 3 Royal Gibraltar.

The first-timer Spiral Galaxy made an eye-catching entrance into racing when scoring with some authority on debut.

The four-year-old landed in midfield and jockey Stathi Katsidis was quick to secure a rail run which served him well when saving ground in the sweep to the turn. Spiral Galaxy turned for home in fourth place and he had little difficulty in dispatching the second and third placed runners as Katsidis gave the gelding more rein and asked his mount to lengthen his stride.

The early tearaway leader, Vencedor, posed a different test for Spiral Galaxy, who was now chasing hard after a front-runner who was intent on holding on to his advantage. The three-and-a-half length lead Vencedor had at the top of the straight was whittled down to one-and-a-half lengths by the 100m mark, with Spiral Galaxy closing fast ... almost too fast as he threatened to run up the back of Vencedor.

A flick of the wrists by Katsidis ... a subtle outward shift ... and Spiral Galaxy was now out alongside Vencedor and his momentum carried him past that runner over the final 50m and on to a comfortable 0.75 length win.

WINNER FEEDBACK
Trainer Lex Fraser: “I am just going to take him home and have a look at him. Bring him to another little race like this probably. We have a fair step to go with him yet, but I mean you can never tell in this game, they just keep progressing don’t they?

“He been bred at home sort of thing, at Oasis Farm. It’s at Westbrook. That’s where he’s been all his life basically. The farm recently changed hands. Kevin O’Brien sold it.

“I came up to Beaudesert for a start and developed a place out there for pre-training and breaking in and one thing or another. Then I moved up with Ron (Maund) and the O’Brien’s and I broke in a lot of horses there like Gold Edition and all those sort of horses ... Ice Chariot.

“I’ve had my training license for thirty ... forty years. I was down in Victoria for a fair while. I came up here and been back to Victoria and just trained odd horses. I’m basically semi-retired. I just took over these horses when Ron Maund went out, but I mainly break in horses and that sort of thing. No, I don’t train any O’Brien horses up here. Neville Saunders does that.”

Jockey Stathi Katsidis: “He’s a nice horse. He’s tough. I reckon he was probably starting to knock up from the 400 and his heart sort of got him there. Like Lex (Fraser) said he is probably a miler too. It was just his ability that won the race for him today. I really like him, yeah. Nice horse.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Spiral Galaxy): 5.00 out to 6.00.
Favourite (Zadkiel): 4.00 steady. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Round Trip (D. Griffin) blundered on jumping away. Near the 700m, Zadkiel (J. Taylor) shifted out and had to be steadied off the heels of Royal Gibraltar (J. Byrne). Round Trip raced three wide throughout the event. A. Spinks, rider of Baggs It, was reprimanded for using his whip on a horse out of contention.