EF FEB 13 - PATTIES MATE STORMS HOME

By Graham Potter | Monday, February 15, 2010

Eagle Farm, February 13, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 1m.
Class 6 Handicap (4yo and up) - 1400m. Time: 1-21.53. (Carrying 53kg).
1 Patties Mate; 2 Dreaming Cash; 3 Mr Doyle.

The last race on the card, the ‘get out stakes’ merely served as a medium to get most of the punters already down on the day into more strife.

In a sixteen horse field the race winner Patties Mate, at odds of $31.00, only had three runners below him on the betting boards, but he made a mockery of his price and embarrassed the opposition by running right away from them mid-straight to ensure he could coast home to a comfortable victory under a confident ride by apprentice Owen Turpin.

The race was run at a rousing gallop from the start with Stop Lying and Topkapi Palace cutting at each other out in front. Patties Mate and Prince Lionheart did much the same thing a couple of length off the leaders as the flat-out pace continued until the turn.

Prince Lionheart was the first to feel the pinch as the front-runners approached the turn, but alongside him, to his inside, Pattie’s Mate was raring to go and when Topkapi Palace shifted off the rail in front of him, Patties Mate needed no second asking and he bounded through the gap to move forward to contest the lead.

By the 300m Stop Lying could find nothing extra. By the 250 mark Topkapi Palace was running around under pressure. That left Pattie’s Mate, full of running hard up along the inside rail, with the upper hand and he proceeded to ram home his advantage by opening up a four length advantage between the 200m and 100m to effectively end the race as a contest.

By the time the swoopers made their move, the ‘race over’ sign had already been posted.

Dreaming Cash did bring the winning margin down to two lengths at the line, but all he was doing was leading the chase for the consolation prize.

Patties Mate is now a seven-time winner, with nine runner-up finishes, from forty-five starts.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Noel Ryan: “The race wasn’t supposed to suit us at all because the track is too hard.

The horse likes a soft track. He has had a problem with front feet and we’ve been nursing him along and we just try to pick soft tracks. We had him in last week and it rained, but it rained on the Saturday night and we ran in the afternoon. You just wouldn’t credit it!

“But the horse has got to run sometime, so this is a good result in the circumstances.”

Apprentice jockey Owen Turpin: “The horse raced well today. Mr Ryan said he was a hundred percent.

“We had a good alley. It just worked out beautifully. They peeled off the fence and just gave us a straight run to the line, so it was good.

“The good alley obviously helps a lot. It means you can put the horse exactly where you want it without spending anything.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Patties Mate): 31.00 steady.
Favourite (Kisani): 3.60 in to 3.00 out to 3.10.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Trainer S. Jones was fined $100 for presenting Course He's Canny to the enclosure with incorrect gear.

Kisani was fractious in the mounting yard and proved difficult to get to the start. The mannerisms of Kisani in the mounting yard caused some concern, and the stable representative for T. Bailey was advised that should the mare perform in a similar manner again, it may be that action will be taken
against it.

Apprentice T. Bell stated that Kisani jumped only fairly and as a consequence of the early speed in the race got well out of its ground.

Just as the gates opened, Course He's Canny threw its head down and lost considerable ground, and then refused to stretch out and tailed off. A post race veterinary examination of Course He's Canny revealed the gelding to be lame in the near-side foreleg. A veterinary certificate of fitness for
Course He's Canny must be produced prior to its next race start.

When Amery (M. Speers) commenced to tire, B. Stewart, the rider of Pit Lane, which was following, was obliged to alter course to that horse's outside.

Inside the 200m, D. Brown, rider of Aquaterra, momentarily dropped his near-side rein for a short distance.