EF JAN 16 - SWEEPSTAKING SHOWS HER CLASS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 17, 2010

Eagle Farm, January 16, 2010.
Track - Good 2. Rail - True.
QTIS Handicap (3yo) - 1200m. Time: 1-09.69.
1 Sweepstaking; 2 Redibis; 3 Santo De Lago.

The Gillian Heinrich trained Sweepstaking enhanced her already formidable reputation when she scored an emphatic victory to take her race record to four wins from seven starts. The chestnut has also has one second and one third place to her credit. Her only unplaced run came in the Group 1 Golden Rose where she finished unplaced behind no less a force than Denman, who beat her home by 8.60 lengths.

Sweepstaking was spelled after that Group 1 run in Sydney. She resumed and won first-up on January 2, underlining her class with a strong come-from-behind win to get up in the shadow of the post. She made it back-to-back wins here to remain unbeaten this prep when again making up a many lengths in the run home.

Sweepstaking was held up briefly at the top of the straight when racing back in tenth position, some seven lengths off Redibis and Melrina Miss who were duelling for the lead. Jockey Stathi Katsidis took his time in easing Sweepstaking out into clear running and his patience was rewarded when the filly responded like the good horse she is.

Sweepstaking settled to her task and produced a quality race-winning effort. Her superior acceleration allowed her to cruise past the bulk of the field and then she easily dismissed Redibis , who was making a big play for the honours down the inside rail, inside the final 100m to go away and win with ease by a widening two length margin with Katsidis sitting quietly in the saddle.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Gillian Heinrich: “Yeah, it’s hard to come down off the high of last week (when Military Rose won the $2 million Magic Millions two-year-old classic). Things are starting to move again. It’s all good.

“This one is a smart horse. She gets back and once she gets out into clear running she really can move. She only carried 51 last start. She’s gone to 57 ... got into a little bit of trouble ... had a little bit of drama getting out as you saw ... had to cross behind the rest of the field, but once she starts moving she really gets going. Fantastic. It was a great effort.

“I don’t know where she will go next yet. To tell you the truth I’ve been so busy over with the Magic Millions horses. I had this race picked out for her, but I haven’t looked too much further with her at this stage. We’ll just have to move on. We’ll sit down tomorrow and have a look and see where we go from here."

Jockey Stathi Katsidis: “I thought the position I was in ... I was in a little bit of trouble. I had a heap of horses in front of me. We had nowhere to go, but an opportunity presented itself to get to the outside ... and I thought, aah she should be hard to beat from here if she can accelerate ... and oh geez, she can accelerate.

“She doesn’t really quite know what to do yet. You tell her to do something, she does it ... but she hasn’t worked it out for herself yet. I probably, if anything, I might have hit the front a bit too soon. She wandered about a little bit. I gave her a chop with the whip and she knuckled down and did what she had to do, so there is a good little bit of improvement in there.

“Yeah, I’m feeling a lot better now. I was feeling a little bit ordinary earlier in the day, but I’ve been able to get some fluids into me for these heavier rides so now I feel on top of the world again.” (Katsidis missed two meetings during the week due to illness).

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Sweepstaking): 3.30 out to 3.80 in to 2.80.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
As L. Cassidy was to be overweight, A. Spinks was substituted as the rider of Redbolt and K. Banks as the rider of Myndos in race 8. L. Cassidy was fined $300.

Just A Piccolo (J. Taylor) jumped away awkwardly and missed the start. Apache Pup (C. McIver) and Fields Of Plenty (J. Holder) were slow to begin. Melrina Miss (O. Turpin) raced wide in the early and middle stages of the race.

Passing the 800m, Rapid Leica Jacko (M. Hellyer) improved up on to the heels of Sweepstaking (S. Katsidis), and when restrained shifted out. Approaching the 700m, Rapid Leica Jacko shifted back in when under restraint and as a result Surf's Up (A. Pattillo) had to be steadied.

Near the 400m, Santo De Lago (T. Bell) shifted out to improve, resulting in Apache Pup (C. McIver) having to be steadied.

Near the 300m, Redbolt (A. Spinks) became unbalanced when cramped for room to the inside of Al Mazaya (M. Morris), which shifted in and away from Melrina Miss (O. Turpin). Near 150m, Redbolt again became unbalanced when cramped for room inside Al Mazaya, which shifted in and away from Melrina Miss (O. Turpin).

J. Byrne, rider of Retrospect, reported he was obliged to make use of the horse in the early stages in order to take up a forward position and as a result Retrospect over-raced for a significant period of the race and, in his opinion, this may have had an effect on the horse's capacity to finish the race off.

Trainer R. Lipp reported that Retrospect was very stirred up in the enclosure prior to the race, and considering that the horse was stepping up sharply in class he was not entirely disappointed with the performance of the horse.