GCST JAN 02 - BURDEKIN BLUES IN WINNING RHYTHM

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 3, 2010

Gold Coast, January 2, 2010.
Track - Dead 5. Rail - True.
Bat Out Of Hell Handicap (Quality) - 900m. Time: 51.54 (Carrying 61kg).
1 Burdekin Blues; 2 Azzaland; 3 Fantene.

The Barry Baldwin trained Burdekin Blues might only have got home by a length, but he was yet again clearly too strong for opposition as he carved out a fourth successive victory and took his overall race record to eleven wins from eighteen starts, with four minor placings. His stake earnings are now up around the $650000 mark.

Jockey Shane Scriven had to scrub Burdekin Blues out of the gates, but he quickly assumed his dominating, front-running role. The field remained fairly bunched up behind the five-year-old until the turn. The second favourite Azzaland attempted to pressure Burdekin Blues on straightening and make him carry his big weight, but the only response he got was for Burdekin Blues to increase the tempo.

Burdekin Blues was travelling comfortably enough for Scriven to sneak a look either side at the 250m mark. What he found was that while Burdekin Blues remained in control, Azzaland was not going away.

Burdekin Blues kept finding and Azzaland kept fighting ... and that is how they chased to the line ... two good horses making a good race of it but, in spite of a weight advantage of 5.5kg in favour of Azzaland, the Bat Out Of Hell was always going to go to Burdekin Blues.

The gelding will now travel south to test his strength against some of the top sprinters in the land where he will, according to Baldwin, ‘try to do Queensland proud.’

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Barry Baldwin: “You have to just re-think the training when you bring a horse back to 900m. I didn’t give him a great deal of work. You are always guessing. You know you always got to guess and ask yourself, have I given him enough ... or have I done that?

“I keep track of the heart-rate on them before and then see how it is going. His heart-rate was always pretty good. He does blow physically. To maybe ... well not the untrained eye, but if you weren’t familiar with the horse you’d maybe say, oh no he’s blowing too much and you’ll panic. But if you know the horse and you know his traits and that, he’s easier to understand.

“It’s taken a while to work him out, but now he is just a pleasure to train. He is just a good horse to train. I’d like to have a stable full of them.

“I was a little bit worried down the straight, but I think he always had them covered.

“Yeah, we’ll be going down to Melbourne. Everybody says ... Shane (Scriven) even said to me ... he might run 1350, but I said, why? Why would you? If he is so good at what he is doing, why would you want to go further?

“Too many of us fall into the trap of that. He sprints well ... keep him sprinting.

“He’ll have a couple of easy weeks now ... maybe ten days at home in the stable and then we’ll go to Melbourne. I’ll give him a run in the (Group 1) Lightning (Stakes). He’s won a Listed race, a Group 3 and a Group 2 so it’s time to get that Group 1.

“We’ve got plenty of options after that. He might go to the Newmarket or he might even go back to Sydney. He might not even tackle the Newmarket yet. I’ll have a talk to (owner) Tom (Sheahan) and see what our best option is.”

Jockey Shane Scriven (who rode without goggles): “Yeah, mate ... had he sort of drawn out ... no, it didn’t matter. They (the goggles) were fogging up and I thought I don’t really need these.

“Nothing headed him. If something headed him I was quite happy to let something go today. They say there is not a lot of skill in those 900m races. He’s a runner, so I put him straight onto the bit. I was very happy with the way he travelled. Straightening up I knew I had the horse to beat (Azzaland) on the outside of me and I let him run and he got away from it easy, but the last furlong I couldn’t really shake that Azzaland away.

“He’d probably had enough at the finish. As quick as he is they are really not his go ... those 900m, you know. We were running ... we were running. Usually he will be comfortable underneath me. We ran 900m flat out today. I wasn’t able to give him much of a breather today. It was a good effort ... 61kg’s, you know, that is a good effort.

“Onwards and upward to Melbourne.”

This feature race win brought a favourable change of fortune for Scriven compared to his efforts on New Year’s day. Twenty-four hours earlier Scriven had to deal with the rodeo-like antics of Beethog, who tried to dislodge Scriven from the saddle for a good 200m after deciding he would not be racing on this occasion. Any rider would have lost his sense of humour while trying to tame such a buck-jumper.

Scriven also had to settle for two race-to-race second places on the day which was not the sort of double he was looking for. So he went home without a winner on the Friday, but then bounced back on Saturday.

Jockey Shane Scriven: “The first of the first 2010 is a day I want to forget. The second of the first 2010 is a day that I’ll remember. You’re right. It was a good turnaround. Yesterday (January 1) ... had I rode a winner yesterday things might have been different. I got beaten a nose and then ran second again and the old horse (Black Ink) ran good in the big race ... so without the buck-jumper (Beethog) I’d probably had a fair day at the office ... but the buck-jumper did spoil that.”

Did Scriven ever think of bailing out on Beethog?

Scriven: “No mate, the captain goes down with the ship.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Burdekin Blues): 1.60 steady.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACTS:
Shakeva (D. Craven) was slow into stride. Fantene (App D. Ganderton) jumped away awkwardly and had to be steadied shortly after when tightened for room between Tonkatsu (J. Taylor) and Simplest (M. Cahill), which was taken out by Azzaland (G. Geran). Monashee Dancer (A. Pattillo) jumped out at the start making contact with Zahbaj (App M. Hellyer). Burdekin Blues (S. Scriven) faltered on jumping away. D. Craven the rider of Shakeva was reminded of his obligations to ride his mounts to the line.

Baldwin