EF DEC 16 - INCH PERFECT RIDE BY ROLLS ON KASAFUEGO

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Thursday, December 17, 2009

Eagle Farm, December 16, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 3m.
Maiden Handicap (C,G & E) - 1400m. 1-25.72.
1 Kasafuego; 2 Lord Downer; 3 Ibethecan.

Apprentice jockey Luke Rolls produced an inch-perfect ride on the John Morrisey trained Kasafuego to snare the free-running Lord Downer in the shadow of the post, giving the gelding his first win in his seventh start.

Rolls took Kasafuego back to last in the early part where he was quite happy to bide his time until the turn. Lord Downer, who had set the early pace, continued to kick on strongly on straightening and Ibethecan, who had improved his position out wide in the sweep to the turn, was the first to go after the leader.

Kasafuego was still well back at this stage, but when Rolls switched the three-year-old out to be the widest runner on the track and asked him to do more, the gelding responded well and started make up ground steadily on the leaders.

By the 100m Kasafuego was up to third and closing on Lord Downer who was still holding off the persistent challenge of Ibethecan. Just when the movement of these three runners suggested the race was going to come down to a nail-biting three-way go, Rolls got something extra out of Kasafuego who jumped ahead at the line to down the game Lord Downer by a neck with Ibethecan a further long-neck back in third.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Jockey Luke Rolls: “Last start it was a similar run, they just didn’t go as hard early for him. They weren’t really running on from behind that day. It was a good run in the end, he was only beaten three lengths. Today it was the same run. He was good enough to beat them.

“He drew wide so we were always going to go back. I ended up tacking onto the back of the favourite and he really wasn’t going anywhere, so I just decided to get out and get going by myself and he was good enough to finish off.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Kasafuego): 5.00 steady.
Favourite (Red God): 2.80 out to 2.90. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Elegant Rhythm (M. Heagney) jumped away awkwardly and shifted in, making heavy contact with Izachamp (C. Reith). Wacheem (M. Palmer) also jumped away awkwardly and shifted in, making heavy contact with Ibethecan (B. Pengelly). Major Wood (A. Erhart) began awkwardly. Cotham (A. Pattillo) was slow to begin.

Izachamp (C. Reith) and Major Wood were both caught wide and were obliged to race three wide for the majority of the race.

Shortly after straightening, Red God (L. Cassidy) attempted to shift out from behind the heels of Lord Downer (S. Katsidis) and leaving the 400m, made contact with Wacheem (M. Palmer). Wacheem and Red God continued to make contact when M. Palmer, rider of Wacheem, attempted to maintain his position and both horses became unbalanced as a result of contact.

L. Cassidy, rider of Red God, was found guilty of a charge of careless riding, in that leaving the 200m he permitted his mount to shift out when insufficiently clear of Wacheem, resulting in that horse having to be checked. L. Cassidy was suspended from riding in races for a period covered by 6 meetings, to commence at midnight, 19 December and to expire at midnight, 30 December. When assessing penalty, stewards took into account his good race riding record.