EF DEC 19 - SANDERSON GRINDS OUT HARD-EARNED WIN

By Graham Potter | Monday, December 21, 2009

Doomben, December 19, 2009.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 3m.
3yo QTIS Handicap - 2020m. Time: 2-05.92.
1 Sanderson; 2 Face The Front; 3 Crystal Honour.

The Kelly Doughty trained Sanderson stepped up to 2020m (from 1615m) and made the run count when he outgunned the his opposition in a pressurised finish to score by a half-neck margin from Face The Front.

Apprentice jockey Mitchell Speers had the colt racing worse than midfield in the early part. The complexion of the race changed between the 900m and the 700m marks when jockey Stathi Katsidis, unhappy with the race was unfolding, switched the favourite Crystal Honour out (in a move which would cost him a holiday - see Stewards Report Extract) and proceded to chase his mount up to sit just outside the leader (King Capo).

Jockey Brad Pengelly followed suit aboard Millennium Hawk. He went forward to track the favourite into the race and young Mitchell Speers decided to match the moves of those two senior riders as he set Sanderson about his business so that he too was chasing up wide around runners at the 700m mark.

Sanderson quickly built a momentum of his own. He went right past Millennium Hawk in the sweep to the turn and he cornered right up in leading line, four wide, with King Capo (on the rail) and Crystal Honour (who was racing two wide).

From there it became a battle of attrition as the leaders kicked on and other runners came from every angle to apply pressure in the surge for the honours ... and all the while Sanderson just kept finding, producing a sustained, long run which proved to be good enough to ward off all challengers.

An idea of the pressure involved over the concluding stages can beat be gauged by the fact that only one length separated the first six runners across the line.

Sanderson has now won three times from ten starts.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Kelly Doughty: “We were originally going to put him out a couple of weeks ago then we saw this race and we thought, if we can keep him up we’ll try for this race to see if he is good enough for the carnival in those set weight races. Yeah, I think after today we can make those plans now.

“His last couple of runs where he has sort of been boxed up on the fence and a lot of weight and that ... it’s only been the last few metres that he has been getting on, so we knew today he would be able to handle this sort of distance. We weren’t worried about that as long as he got a nice run.

“We had to use an apprentice. We had to claim. I mean he ran sixth last time, but they still gave us 58kg. He’s probably not really a kid’s horse in one sense, but Mitchell (Speers) rode him last time. He sort of didn’t really have that good a feel for him last time, but we thought, well he knows him now ... we should be ok.

“Yeah, he went early. It was like a good half-mile run. I was quite surprised. I sort of said take off at the 600, but when I saw the early move I thought, oh ok!

“We wanted to try him over the 2000 to see if he was going to be good enough to come back over the carnival. So he’ll head out on Monday and have a bit of a holiday. We’ll go from there with him."

Apprentice jockey Mitchell Speers: “I got shuffled four deep. They said to get rolling on him early because last time I got a bit caught up on him. He’s got no sprint on him. He just keeps coming. It was a bit ugly, but it worked. He kept kicking on good.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Sanderson): 9.00 out to 8.50.
Favourite (Crystal Honour): 3.30 in to 2.80. Finished third.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Lunar Rose (M. Hellyer) over-raced in the early stages. Near the 700m, Powerful Sphere (J. Holder) had to be steadied when crowded for room between Coroner (J. Byrne) and Bella Sirena (C. Reith), which was taken in by Sanderson (M. Speers).

Leaving the 100m, S. Seamer, rider of Break The Ice, shifted to the outside of the heels of Sanderson to afford his mount clear running and in doing so made contact with the tiring Millenium Hawk (B. Pengelly) on two occasions.

S. Katsidis, rider of Crystal Honour, was found guilty of a charge of careless riding, in that near the 1000m he permitted his mount to shift out near the 1000m, making heavy contact with Bella Sirena (C. Reith), which resulted in that horse being forced three wide on the track. S. Katsidis was suspended from riding in races for a period covered by 6 meetings, to commence at midnight, 20 December and to expire at midnight, 31 December 2009.

B. Pengelly, rider of Millenium Hawk, pleaded guilty to a charge of careless riding, in that near the 200m he permitted his mount to shift out when insufficiently clear of Coroner, resulting in jockey J. Byrne having to take hold of Coroner to avoid the heels of Millenium Hawk. B. Pengelly was suspended from riding in races for a period covered by 7 meetings, to commence at midnight, 20 December and to expire at midnight, 1 January 2009.

Stewards questioned K. Wharton in respect of the riding tactics employed on Craiglea Blondie today. K. Wharton explained that the filly was having its first start over a staying distance and therefore he intended to ride Craiglea Blondie with cover to ensure that his mount ran out the distance of today's event. Trainer P. Flemming confirmed the instructions issued to K. Wharton, however voiced his surprise at how far back the filly settled in today's race. Stewards subsequently advised K. Wharton that, in their opinion, he had shown poor judgement in the early stages of the race whereby through his lack of vigour he allowed several runners to progress forward of him.

A post-race veterinary examination of Bella Serena revealed the filly to have pulled up lame in the off-foreleg. Trainer J. McLachlan will be notified that he would be required to provide a veterinary clearance for Bella Serena prior to its next race start. Crystal Honour lost its near-fore plate in running.