DOOM JAN 30 - FANTASTIC BLUE FLIES HOME

By Graham Potter | Monday, February 1, 2010

Doomben, January 30, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 3.5m.
QTIS 3yo Handicap - 1350m. Time: 1-19.52. (Carrying 51.5kg).
1 Fantastic Blue; 2 Spot On Target; 3 Our Mr Cashman.

The Paul Nolan trained Fantastic Blue rounded off a spectacular day for apprentice jockey Tim Bell. The three-year-old provided Bell with his fourth winner of the afternoon, but it was no ‘gimme’ as both horse and rider had to tune to extract the desired result.

After an ordinary start, Fantastic Blue raced towards the rear of the field in third last place in the early part, well out of his ground as Showhog set the speed up front.

Bell rode a patient race and Fantastic Blue was still back in eleventh spot some six lengths off the lead as the field turned for home. As Showhog cried enough and dropped away, Our Mr Cashman made an early play for the honours.

Positioned where he was, Bell could not afford to waste any time in setting up the chase for Fantastic Blue, but he first had to safely negotiate his way through traffic to do so. Bell bravely chose to take a narrow split between Lion Beauty and Our Dreaming. Fantastic Blue was as committed to the cause as his rider was, and the duo got through that split so well they were just two lengths off Our Mr Cashman passing the 200m mark ... and closing.

There was no stopping Fantastic Blue now that the grey was in full cry. The gelding stormed past runners, ranged up to Our Mr Cashman and then breezed right past him to stamp his authority on proceedings. Bell just pushed him out hands and heels over the final 100m as Fantastic Blue strode to an impressive 1.80 length victory.

Spot On Target ran on well enough on the inside to claim second place. Our Mr Cashman finished third.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Paul Nolan: “He is a great kid. He is a great rider this bloke (Tim Bell). I just made the statement. He is a better rider than G.Moore. G.Moore never rode a winner for me, but this fella has and he’s a good boy.

“He’s had no luck at all this horse. He’s had bad alleys. I said, I’ll put him in with 3kg’s off. The day the races were called off, he’d have won that day but they called them off. Now he had the race where he got the three off and he did it easy. He is a pretty good horse.”

Jockey Tim Bell: “Yeah, it was a bit tight at the top of the straight. That’s why we are paid to ride them. We are paid good money to try and make runs where there are runs and I was just glad that he was a tough enough horse to go through them.

“The horse travelled well through the run. I was a bit panicky that I was so far back to tell the truth. The instructions were to be about fourth or fifth. Approaching about the 600 I ended up on the back of a couple of nice horses who helped me into the race.

“I actually rate this horse for the runs that it did take, you know. When I got into the straight the runs I took ... a lot of horses would hesitate going through the runs that I took.

“As soon as it hit the front it kept running and that’s also what made me like the horse, you know. A lot of horses will hit the front and try and steady back and wait for them, but he kept progressing right to the line.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Fantastic Blue): 6.00 steady.
Favourite (Just A Piccolo): 4.20 out to 4.40 in to 4.60.Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Just A Piccolo (J. Taylor) and Rapid Leica Jacko (B. Pengelly) were slow to begin.

Approaching the 800m Rapid Leica Jacko was momentarily tightened for room by Our Mr Cashman (D. Browne) which shifted in when endeavouring to obtain a position closer to the fence. In this incident Apache Pup, which was following, had to be steadied from the heels of Duel Show (J. Bowditch) as a consequence.

Our Mr Cashman, Duel Show and Apache Pup raced wide throughout.

Leaving the 500m Easy Knight (J. Wood) shifted out taking Apache Pup (C. McIver) wider on the track. A short distance later Apache Pup shifted in and had to be steadied from the hind quarters of Easy Knight.

J. Taylor, the rider of Just A Piccolo, reported that the horse was slow to begin and due to the early speed in the race he was forced to ride the horse aggressively to maintain contact with the main body of the field.

J. Taylor added that he was concerned mid-race that Just A Piccolo had at no stage travelled comfortably within itself and he therefore took hold in an endeavour to coax the horse up on to the bit. J. Taylor further added that the horse worked into the race well rounding the home turn but only finished the race off fairly.

A post-race veterinary examination of Lion Beauty (R. Wiggins) revealed that the gelding had sustained a laceration to the off-hind pastern.

A post-race veterinary examination of Fields Of Plenty (J. Holder) failed to reveal any abnormalities.