GCST JAN 09 - WARRIOR GIRL BATTLES HER WAY TO VICTORY

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Gold Coast, January 09, 2010.
Track - Dead 4. Rail - Out 2m (900-400); True 400 - winning post; Out 1m - remainder.
Magic Millions Sprint (Quality Handicap) - 1000m. Time: 57.15.
1 Warrior Girl; 2 Fab Fevola; 3 D/Heat Backstabber & Al's Best Mate.

The Maryann Thexton trained Warrior Girl, a temperamental filly with an uncompromising attitude, rocked punters when, in one step, she went from being a humble Maiden winner to being a convincing winner of the $250000 Magic Millions Sprint, a Quality Open Handicap.

The huge leap in class was as big as Thexton’s huge leap of faith in even lining up Warrior Girl for such an assignment. The result was vindication of that faith, but while Thexton and her team celebrated, the result caused punters heads to drop. Warrior Girl paid $69.60 on the local tote.

Warrior Girl raced in the second half of the field in the early part as Monashee Dancer and Fab Fevola set the early speed. The two leaders, locked as they were now in an almost private battle, turned for home with a useful advantage. As they looked to increase the tempo at the top of the straight, Warrior Girl was still all of eight lengths back, five wide and with plenty of work to do.

Fab Fevola got the better of Monashee Dancer at the 200m mark and got away from his rival looking every inch a winner. Even when Warrior Girl, who was closing all the time down the straight, really started to hit her straps inside the final 120m, it still looked like Fab Fevola would get home safely, but Warrior Girl swopped late to relegate the Bryan Guy trained runner into second place in the final few strides as she arrived to claim a stunning, no nonsense victory.

As is so often the case in racing when there is a boil-over, the winner made a mockery of her price as there was not one ounce of luck about her win. It was achieved on merit. It was hard-earned and well deserved.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Maryann Thexton: “I thought it was such a big step up (from a Maiden to a Quality Handicap). We certainly thought she could gallop and that is why I said to the owners if we could get the run we would take it. She’s a fast filly. We know she’s got speed to burn and her sectionals and her time when she won here the other day were comparable to Open Horse times. But I also said to them before the race ... we totally respected the field. We knew they were all good gallopers too.

“The one thing I did notice after we stopped screaming was the deathly quiet. Nobody expected it. We knew she could gallop that was why she was in the race, but I didn’t know she could beat theses horses.

“I must give great credit to Kelly Purdy. She’s now had ten rides for seven wins for the stable, I think, since she has become stable rider. She rides this horse every day and she knows him inside out. We made the decision to leave her on two horses today because she knows them. She knows when to push the button and I can’t wait to congratulate Kelly.

“Kelly’s tough. She’s ridden horses that have bucked and won and horses that have wanted to run off and won. She gives it her all and we really respect her as a rider.

“The horse is going to go to the paddock now. She’s done a lot wrong in this prep. She is a very difficult filly. Once she is under saddle, she is hard to get on the track. She is hard to get in the barriers, but we work with her, not against her, because we know how good she is. She’s had more trials than she has had races.

“Today has made it all worthwhile. Hopefully with these last couple of positive experiences she’ll go out to the paddock on a good note and come back for the Winter Carnival.

“I won the Cup a couple of years ago and that was huge. I think this might be bigger. It’s a big thrill to win.

“I’ll tell you a secret. I sat out in the middle of the day when she breezed up for the Magic Millions breeze-up sales. I clocked her last furlong from my markers and it’s the fastest horse I’ve ever clocked out in the middle for five years.

“She was a $30000 purchase at the breeze-up’s. We did put her straight into the Toowoomba Magic Millions Plate when Fairchild won it. She just led up and failed to find the 1000m as a young horse.

After that run at Toowoomba she was shin-sore, cranky ... dirty on the world. She’d obviously had a fairly hard prep for the breeze-up sales and we sort of pushed her a little bit to get her to that (Toowoomba) race.

“Her stable name is ‘Della.’ (The sire of Warrior Girl is Ombra Della Sera). “We tipped her out and we nicknamed her ‘Della the Speller.’ She was in the paddock for months and months and months and we let her mature and grow. Then she was ‘Della the Trialer’ because she kept on having to have all of these trials to get back to the races. Anyway, now she is ‘Della the winner’.

“She’s come back in a big strong filly and she has lost none of that turn of foot and none of her attitude ... unfortunately. I think a big paddock spell now might help turn that around a bit.

“She is a tricky little girl and every-time I think I’ve got her cornered she thinks of a new curve ball to throw at me. She’s just a cranky pants. For example, you’ll have her in the stalls in the tie-ups and you want her to walk out and she’ll rather rear up backwards than walk out ... and then she’ll come back down and she’ll go, alright I’ll walk out now.

“I think we’ve worked her out ... taking her the long way around to the barriers and just trotting her straight in. What we might lose for her being in there for a while, we gain from her just getting her head back together. She is a real cranky, little filly, but she’s done the job really well today.

“I think the breed is a bit like that ... the Ombra Della Sera. I had another one. She was not dissimilar ... not quite as fast ... but not dissimilar in temperament.

“I know she might be difficult to place when she comes back having just won an Open Class race. But there are plenty of Class 3 Plates and Class 6 Plates around and she is still only a two win horse, so we’ll be doing our best to dodge the handicapper.

“But, at the end of the day, she’s won $157000 today. You have to win a lot of Class races to win that sort of money. We talked about this amongst the crew and we thought if we win we would be that happy it doesn’t matter.

“It’s hard to win up here. There are really good horses and really good trainers. The horses are getting better and better bred, so it’s getting harder and harder to win these races, but we’ve had our share and we’ve enjoyed it.”

Jockey Kelly Purdy: “Because of the barrier we really sort of had to play it by ear. Maryann (Thexton) said just let her jump out of the gates and see where she lands and take it from there. So because we drew wide I sort of didn’t take any instructions. We didn’t know what was going to happen. I just jumped out and hoped that they would go hard so I could get in behind them.

“I dug her out as if I was going to ride her positive. When they’ve all gone hard I just took hold and went in behind pretty quick and took the sit. I went one off and I was happy to be there, because I knew she’d get home because she’s run the sectionals before.

“The biggest thing was her manners. We’ve had problems with her manners itself. We always knew she could gallop. It’s more her brain that we were worried about more than anything, more than her ability.

“I ride her in all her work. She is a problem child. She’s always been really good right from day one. She has always shown heaps, but her manners have always let her down so we haven’t been able to get the best out of her. There’s heaps of potential there.”

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
On jumping Albert The Fat (S. Katsidis) shifted in and made contact with Fab Fevola (J. Byrne). On leaving the gates Monashee Dancer (A. Pattillo) shifted out and bumped Warrior Girl (K. Purdy).

At the start Backstabber (C. Brown) was crowded for room between Al's Best Mate (L. Nolen), which shifted out and Simplest (C. Munce), which shifted in slightly. In the early stages Sir Monashee (L. Cassidy) had a tendency to pull and got close to the heels of Al's Best Mate.

C. Munce the rider of Simplest was found guilty of a charge of careless riding, the careless riding being that passing the 200m he allowed his mount to shift out whilst riding along when not clear of Sir Monashee.

As a consequence of this incident that horse had to shift ground onto Al's Best Mate, which then shifted out crowding Ben Hur (G. Boss) onto Warrior Girl, this resulted in Ben Hur having to be checked severely. C. Munce was suspended from riding in races to commence after the Eagle Farm meeting Wednesday 13 January 2010 and will expire midnight Thursday 26 January 2010, a period to cover 8 race meetings.

Stewards afforded S. Katsidis (Albert The Fat) and E. Petrie the trainer of the horse an opportunity of explaining the disappointing run. S. Katsidis said that the horse was somewhat fractious after being loaded and before the gates opened it jumped forward bumping its nose on the stalls. S. Katsidis said that after the race he noticed Albert The Fat had some blood in its mouth. He said the horse got well back as expected, but did not close the race off as expected.

Mr Petrie said the horse has had one trial going into today's race and will benefit from the run today. He expressed satisfaction with the manner in which Albert The Fat had been ridden. Their explanations were accepted. A post race veterinary examination of Albert The Fat revealed the horse was showing signs of soreness in its near side front leg. Before Albert The Fat will be able to race again a veterinary certificate will need to be produced.

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