RAGING POLE SCORES A HARD-EARNED VICTORY AS RACING KiCKS OFF ON THE GOLD COAST POLY TRACK

By Graham Potter | Saturday, January 28, 2023

Raging Pole, now a veteran of forty-eight races, claimed the seventh win of his career when he saluted in a BM68 Handicap over 2000m at the inaugural meeting held on the Gold Coast Poly Track on January 28.

The six-year-old Better Than Ready gelding had posted a warning in his previous start in which he finished second in the same class over 1690m at Ipswich two weeks earlier.

Jake Molloy did the honours in the saddle with his claim bringing the weight Raging Pole had to carry down from 59kg to 57.5kg ... a jockey selection call which clearly helped Raging Pole’s interests, particularly the way the race unfolded.

It was no ‘gimme’ for the $2.80 favourite with Molloy having to work to some degree on Raging Pole for much of the way.

After searching to try and find a reasonable position early, Molloy settled Raging Pole in fourth spot before slipping back to fifth, some three lengths off the lead as the $26 chance Spurious took the field down the back straight.

From as early as the 800m mark, Molloy had to urge his mount along and, when the field turned into the home straight, Raging Pole still had it all to, now five lengths off the new leader Elizano, who had sklpped away up front.

Molloy persisted, but Raging Pole, while not losing ground, was still not running on with any real meaning ... that is, until there was just over 200m left to run, where Raging Pole suddenly found a new gear and started to cut back the deficit to Elizano.

For Raging Pole, it was still a grinding finish though, with the initial question being would he have enough time to reel in Elizano and, if he did, would he still carry enough momentum when he got there to sweep past his rival and into the lead.

Raging Pole answered both of those questions in positive fashion, catching and passing Elizano some 40m from the finish to come home the winner by 0.40 lengths.

As this was the first meeting on the Gold Coast’s new Poly Track, it is still very early days to assess the characteristics of the racing surface, but the fact remains that it is likely that some horses will go better on it than others ... and if Raging Pole does end up being in the group of runners that does handle this synthetic surface, it could open up a nice option for the Sears team.

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