DOOM FEB 17 - KAMAKURA TAKES THE NEXT STEP

By Matthew Grimson and Graham Potter | Friday, February 19, 2010

Doomben, February 17, 2010.
Track - Slow 7. Rail - out 7.5m.
Class 4 Handicap - 2220m. Time: 2-19.25. (Carrying 57.5kg).
1 Kamakura; 2 Whitemore Dynasty; 3 Hopeson.

The Garry Hutcheson trained Kamakura stepped up in both class and distance (from Class 3 to Class 4; from 1838m to 2200m) here and, while the bar might have been raised, the chestnut handled the task with aplomb to win by a decisive 1.50 length margin.

Jockey Shane Scriven settled Kamakura in fifth place early, racing on the rail some four lengths off the lead. Kamakura held that position until early in the sweep to the turn where Scriven had the gelding off the fence and improving and the five-year-old pushed forward to be just 2.50 lengths off the leader Whitemore Dynasty on straightening.

It was no easy chase from there though as Whitemore Dynasty fought on valiantly for the first half of the straight but, with a little over 100m left to run, Kamakura ranged up to take the measure of the tiring front-runner to win going away by 1.50 lengths.

The lightly raced Kamakura is now a three time winner from only ten starts. He also has two runner-up finishes to his credit.

WINNER FEEDBACK
Trainer Garry Hutchesson: “We were confident today. His prep has been fairly good. We’ve been aiming him for a Class 6 over the same distance in ten days time.

“He can be a tricky horse to train. He has his little quirks but we’ve got a few girls that do his work that are really good with him.”

Jockey Shane Scriven: “He’s a horse with a future, you know. Stepping up to the 2200 first go, but we always thought he could stay, he is bred to stay. He is going to win some nice staying races that horse.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Kamakura): 2.70 out to 2.80 in to 2.30.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Bearhug (K. Wharton) was slow to begin. Taffy (J. Byrne) jumped away very awkwardly and lost ground.

From the 600m until the early part of the straight Slepner (M. Morris) was held up and unable to improve. Bearhug lost its near-hind plate during the event.