DOOM FEB 06 - SEVENTH WIN FOR MONASHEE DANCER

By Graham Potter | Monday, February 8, 2010

Doomben, February 6, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 5.5.
2MW Last Year Handicap - 1020m. Time: 57-63. (Carrying 53.5kg).
1 Monashee Dancer; 2 Perugin Thought; 3 Carry The Clubs.

In his runs leading into this race, the Darren Bell trained Monashee Dancer had been taking on far stronger opposition than he met here. His last four races were won by Chakvetadze, Burdekin Blues, Warrior Girl and Azzaland, all quality performers.

The run to Azzaland in particular, in Monashee Dancer’s last start, looked to have put the writing on the wall for the result here. Azzaland broke the track record for the Eagle Farm 1000m trip on that occasion (two weeks back) and Monashee Dancer was only a length adrift of the winner at the line.

Monashee Dancer’s gate speed put him straight into the lead ahead of his stable companion Carry The Clubs and Cattleman. When Cattleman tried to apply pressure in the sweep to the turn, jockey Stathi Katsidis made sure Monashee Dancer kept that one in its place and the grey maintained a comfortable lead until the turn.

On straightening it quickly became apparent that Carry The Clubs and Cattleman, the runners closest to Monashee Dancer, did not have the fire-power to match motors with the front-runner. As Monashee Dancer increased the tempo early in the straight he looked increasingly to be assured of victory ... that is until Perugin Thought started to rattle home from off the speed.

The Nathan Schofield trained runner was still all of four lengths back with a little over 200m left to run, but he quickly built momentum under a determined ride from Scott Seamer. At the finish Perugin Though was eating up the ground and closing rapidly on Monashee Dancer with each passing stride, but the post came that half stride too soon for Perugin Blue who had to settle for second place, a fast diminishing long-head away from glory.

This was the relatively lightly raced Monashee Dancer’s nineteenth start. The five-year-old has now won seven times and been runner-up on four occasions.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Darren Bell: “He does give us a bit of a heart attack in the last few strides of a race. Whether it is just losing concentration or whether it is because he has just run along at a good solid clip ... but a 1000m certainly sees him out.

“Look, I don’t know at some stage in the future if we’ll try and ride him any different but in his work he doesn’t appreciate being held up. He is just a natural running horse.

“I haven’t really looked beyond this race today. We’ve had a bit if an up and down prep to get him to this stage. We had him sort of set for the Magic Millions and a few things went wrong. So he’s overcome a few things this prep and done a pretty good job.

“If there is another 1000m race coming up we might have a crack, otherwise he might have a bit of an ease up.”

“Earlier on he had a lot of problems with shin-soreness and he’s had a history of bad feet as well. That’s why he has been fairly lightly raced.”

Jockey Stathi Katsidis: “Yeah, I watched him race plenty and I’ve been following his runs a fair bit.

“I know he does get very tired the last bit. I did try to save him for that, but when I tried to hold him up mid-race he resented it. So, I made a note of that and let him roll when he wanted to.

“He jumped. He ran ... like I said I tried to slow him up, but he didn’t like that ... so he’s just run the whole way. The horse is running out of his skin at the moment. Darren (Bell) has got him flying and he deserves to win a few of these races at the moment.

“I reckon he’ll be right to win until he got to about 56.5kg in the weights. Maybe he can win two or three on the trot now.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Monashee Dancer): 1.80 in to 1.60.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
She's All Greek (M. Hellyer) was inclined to lay in approaching the first turn. Bold Reason (B. Pengelly) brushed the running rail rounding the first turn. Cattleman (J. Byrne) was caught wide on the first turn and obliged to work forward three wide until a point approaching the 500m.

A post-race veterinary examination of Monashee Dancer revealed the horse had bled from one nostril. Trainer D. Bell was advised that the Monashee Dancer must perform a 1000m gallop before stewards prior to being permitted to race again.

A post-race veterinary examination of Kutalo, which finished last, failed to reveal any significant abnormality. It was noted that Kutalo had lost its off-fore plate in running.

Peltro lost its off-fore plate in running.