DOOM FEB 06 - HONOUR HAPPY LIST SCORES WELL-JUDGED WIN

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Doomben, February 6, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 5.5.
Open Handicap - 2040m. Time: 2-04.74. (Carrying 55kg).
1 Honour Happy List; 2 Tripitz; 3 Regal Castanea.

The Steven O’dea trained Honour Happy List landed the thirteenth win of her career, coming home under a well-judged ride from apprentice Luke Rolls.

Rolls settled the seven-year-old in fourth place in the early part, but that was a full seven to eight lengths behind the tearaway leader Icanwin. Icanwin was leading on borrowed time though and the early front-runner was already a spent force early in the sweep to the turn.

With the field becoming quite compact, Rolls switched Honour Happy List out four wide in the approach to the turn in order to ensure he would have clear running in the home straight, a decision which contributed to Honour Happy List winning the race.

Regal Castanea and Telfire led the charge for home on straightening. Right behind them, along the inside was Tripitz (in third) with Honour Happy List out wider poised to strike. When Rolls asked his mount to accelerate Honour Happy List easily took the measure of Regal Castanea and Telfire and that, because he was in clear air, gave him first run on Tripitz, who was momentarily held up behind a weakening Telfire at the top of the straight.

With 200m left to run it was Honour Happy List’s race for the taking, but Tripitz had not surrendered yet. The Mark Webb trained runner fought his way back into contention and closed up menacingly on Honour Happy List, to the point where he was close enough to have a dive on the line, but that effort failed by a short-head which was the margin by which Honour Happy List claimed victory.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Steven O’dea: “Yeah, it was a good tough win. She was top weight today ... although she had the claim. She is only a little mare, you know. She’s probably going to be a bit difficult to place now. I don’t think she can carry weight real well. I know she only had 55kg today, but that is probably near her limit. That’s probably as much as she would like to carry.

“I might give her a bit of a freshen up. She’s had a bit of racing now. This sort of distance seems to be her forte. They just seem to be a little slick for her over a shorter trip. So this distance is probably where she is best.

“I’ve only had her for this preparation. This is her second win for me. She went into some Listed races her first couple of runs in this time and they were probably a bit too slick for her. Once she sort of dropped in grade a little bit and I got her up to a staying trip she had come to the fore.”

Apprentice jockey Luke Rolls: “That was a really difficult race to judge the tempo. You never know whether to sort of creep up or stay back. I decided to stay back for a long time and it just paid off in the end.

“I pretty much had to start niggling her from about the 800. I didn’t really want to. I wanted to go from the 600, but that worked out alright anyway.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Honour Happy List): 3.70 out to 5.00.
Favourite (Woorim): 2.50 in to 2.40. Finished fourth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Tripitz (S. Seamer) jumped away awkwardly.

Leaving the 800m, Honour Happy List (L. Rolls) shifted out, forcing Encosta Tszyu (R. McMahon) and Yield Curve (B. Pengelly) wider. L. Rolls, rider of Honour Happy List, was reprimanded and advised to exercise more care in similar circumstances.

Stewards sought an explanation from jockey S. Katsidis in respect of the performance of Woorim.

S. Katsidis stated he had been instructed to hold a position midfield if the horse began well, however S. Katsidis stated that after travelling a short distance, Woorim was reluctant to hold a position in amongst horses and he was obliged to settle Woorim at the tail of the field.

He added that he was forced to apply pressure to the horse throughout the event in order to maintain contact with the main body of the field and was forced to apply the whip from a point near the 1000m in an attempt to improve the position of Woorim.

S. Katsidis further stated that whilst it was customary for the horse to make ground down the outside in its races he felt it best to track up behind other runners today in an attempt to utilise Woorim's sprint at the end of the race, however Woorim did not work into the race as he would have liked and disappointed him over the concluding stages.

Trainer R. Heathcote advised that whilst Woorim had pleased him leading into today's event, in light of the horse's performance today, he intended to spell Woorim.

When questioned regarding the poor performance of Encosta Tszyu, rider R. McMahon stated that Encosta Tszyu enjoyed a nice run in the early stages, and near the 700m he was in a position to trail the eventual winner Honour Happy List, however when that horse accelerated passing the 550m, Encosta Tszyu lost the back of Honour Happy List and failed to respond to his riding thereafter.

R. McMahon added that the gelding had worked well in preparation for today's race and he had expected the horse to race well.

Trainer B. Smith advised stewards that he would have further veterinary tests carried out on the gelding and undertook to advise stewards of the results of such tests.

A post-race veterinary examination of Icanwin, which compounded from the 700m and finished some distance from the remainder of the field, failed to reveal any significant abnormalities. Trainer I. Duke will be interviewed regarding the performance of Icanwin.

Jockey B. Pengelly reported that Yield Curve was uncomfortable in its action over the final stages. A post-race veterinary examination of Yield Curve revealed the gelding to be lame in the off foreleg.

Following a veterinary examination of Yield Curve whereby it was reported that the gelding was lame in the off-foreleg, trainer's representative Mr N. Peterson was questioned and informed stewards that the horse had sustained a stone bruise on the off-fore hoof on Monday, 1 February.

Trainer Mrs K. Carroll subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge under AR140(a), in that she failed to advise stewards of a condition which may have affected the performance of the horse today. Mrs Carroll was fined the sum of $500.