EF FEB 27 - STEEL LIPS GETS DUE REWARD

By Graham Potter | Sunday, February 28, 2010

Eagle Farm, February 27 2010.
Track - Dead 4. Rail - out 3m.
Class 6 Handicap (4yo and up) - 1500m. Time: 1-30.07. (Carrying 58kg).
1 Steel Lips; 2 Agnes Dream; 3 Three Chances.

The Steel Ryan trained Steel Lips showed plenty of fight when coming home with a rush to upstage his rivals in a pressurised finish.

Jockey Jimmy Byrne placed Steel Lips in third then fourth place early on, just off the speed, and the six-year-old held his position until the turn where he cornered, one wide, hard on the heels of the leader Agnes Dream and Three Chances.

That’s went Steel Lips found trouble.

Agnes Dream and Three Chances kicked on at the top of the straight and, with Topkapi Palace racing to his outside, Steel Lips was temporarily caught in a roadblock which was delaying his progress. Byrne tried in vain to find a way out for the first half of the straight, but his perseverance paid off approaching the 200m mark when Topkapi Palace, after having a very wide run throughout, began to falter. The gap appeared and Steel Lips was now in clear running.

Agnes Dream and Three Chances were still hard at it in front and were closing in on the finishing line meaning that Steel Lips had plenty to do in the closing stages, but he proved equal to the task as Byrne drove the gelding out in a forceful finale to claim victory by a long-neck.

This was Steel Lips’ seventh visit to the winners’ enclosure in twenty-nine starts.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Steele Ryan: “He’s been trying hard. He’s fit and hard and it was probably his turn to win today, but it was a good gutsy win with 58kg, I thought.

“I suppose the pressure was on. He’s won races every prep I’ve had him up and we were maybe getting to the end of the campaign, so it was good seeing him win today.

“There is no evidence today why we shouldn’t keep going with him at this stage, so I might look for another one in a fortnight or three weeks. I might even freshen him back to the 1350 in three weeks and then look for a mile after that.

“I’ve got other options. I think there is the Tatts Cup on next week over a mile. I’ll consider it. He has got a good back-up record, but he has had a long campaign so I’ll probably space the runs a little bit. There are a couple of nice races coming up around Easter time that I’ve got in the back of my mind.

“We didn’t go for the claim. Jim (Byrne) rode him the other day and he gave me a few clues on him ... just to ride him a bit differently. He just wanted to take a little sit ... sort of be forward, but take a little bit of a sit, sort of be positive on him.

“I suppose if he had another ride on him he would have rode him with a longer rein, so he just let another inch or two of rein go today. We stuck with Jim with the 58kg and it proved to be a good decision. He’s a good rider and he deserves a lot of credit today.”

Jockey Jim Byrne: “It was a tight finish but he probably would have won by two (lengths) if I got the run when I was looking for it ... that was at about the 300m.

“So it was still a pretty good win because he was still able to let down with only a furlong to go carrying this sort of weight. As I said the way he was weighted that was the best he could do. He was able to pick that weight up so full credit to the horse.

“The mile probably just sees him out and coming back to 1500 was probably the ideal with him. He can have a turn of foot, but when you get to the mile ... he became a bit dour the other day (when finishing second to Rare Diamond), albeit that that winner there has been racing in great form.

“This horse has carried that form on. Yeah, thankfully I got the runs when I really needed them and he wore them out going to the line.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Steel Lips): 7.00 out to 8.50 in to 8.00.
Favourite (Kisani): 2.70 out to 3.50. Finished eighth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Connections of Topkapi Palace informed stewards of their intention to have the horse ridden back off the pace today.

Topkapi Palace (S. Scriven) was caught wide in the early stages and was obliged to race wide for some distance.

Leaving the 1200m Pit Lane (J. Wood) shifted in, making contact with Steel Lips (J. Byrne). A short distance later Steel Lips shifted in forcing Three Chances (C. Reith) in on to Mystic Vibe (L. Rolls), which shifted in causing Yuketan (O. Turpin) to be checked. Kisani (C. Munce) was also hampered.

A short distance later Kisani raced in restricted room when Goldfinger (M. Hellyer) shifted in as a result of being tightened by Topkapi Palace. Apprentice J. Wood was severely reprimanded under AR. 137(a) and instructed to exercise more care in similar circumstances.

Near the 100m Three Chances, when unbalanced, shifted out and made contact with Topkapi Palace.

Armstrong Jones (B. El-Issa) was also caught wide in the early stages and compounded leaving the 500m. A post-race veterinary examination of Armstrong Jones revealed no abnormalities. Trainer D. Murphy explained that in his opinion the horse lost concentration after being restrained, when trapped wide, to take a position closer to the fence. Mr Murphy advised stewards that he intended to experiment with blinkers in an endeavour to have the horse take up a more prominent position in its races.

Stewards sought an explanation from C. Munce regarding the disappointing performance of Kisani. C. Munce stated that whilst the horse was slow to begin, it travelled well, however did not finish the race off and in his opinion the horse may be looking for longer races. A post-race veterinary examination revealed the horse to be lame in the nearside foreleg. A veterinary clearance will be required before the horse races again.