MATILLY TOUGHS IT OUT TO MAINTAIN HER UNBEATEN RECORD ... THAT'S FOUR FROM FOUR NOW

By Graham Potter | Monday, July 3, 2023

Do you remember a horse called Drunken Joker?

You might need a good memory, but if you can find your way back to the 2003/04 season you will find that Drunken Joker finished second in both the Group 3 BTC Classic and the Gold Coast Guineas before getting his group race reward with a win in the Group 3 Lyndhurst Stud Doomben Classic.

The son of Hula Chief would have thirteen starts that season for five wins and five runner-up finishes and, in six of those starts … including all of his feature race results … the Paul Wallace trained runner was ridden by Justin Stanley.

Wallace clearly had a very good horse on his hands at the time and his own training prowess was reflected in the positive results he achieved with Drunken Joker all those years ago.

Fast forward to the present time … to last Saturday at the Sunshine Coast to be exact … where the Paul Wallace / Justin Stanley combination was again stamping their mark on proceedings, recording a hard-fought win with the three-year-old Kobayashi filly Matilly, who showed real courage in a pressurized finish to get home by the narrowest of margins to seal her fourth consecutive victory and, in the process, keep her unbeaten record intact.

“Yeah, Paul had a good horse in the early 2000’s called Drunken Joker and I used to ride for him then,” said Stanley. “So, Paul had been around for quite a while.
“He gave training away for a fair few years not long after Drunken Joker … and he has just recently got back in the last twelve to eighteen months with a few horses and he is starting to build up his team.

"He has got a really nice bunch of young horses coming through … yeah, he has always been able to train. He’s a good trainer and a good bloke.

“I actually ran into his at the sales … it might have been the March sales at the Gold Coast last year … and he said he had a couple in work and was going to start training again, and things just sort of went from there.

“I had a few rides for him and then was lucky enough to get the callup when he got a couple of decent ones.”
So, how has Matilly’s form unfolded over her brief four race history.

“I was pretty confident going into the Maiden at Toowoomba (on debut) on the back of a sharp, impressive 650m jump-out,” explained Stanley, taking up the story, “but I probably didn’t expect her to win like that.”

Matilly won by 4.50 lengths over the 870m dash from This Is One, who also became a winner three runs later. Her starting price was $4.

A BM58 at Gatton was the next target, this time over 1100m, where Matilly made it back-to-back victories when scoring by a clearcut 2.80 lengths as the short-priced $1.55 favourite.

“She jumped up in distance there … didn’t beat a lot … but was impressive in her own right. Ran good time and won quite convincingly with plenty in hand”, said Stanley.

“Then she went back to Toowoomba over 1200m”, (in a BM60 … as an even shorter priced favourite at $1.24). “I thought she was a bit average there to be honest, but she got the job done. She did carry a bit of weight (58.5kg), but she just raced a bit flat to me.

“I spoke to Paul. The wasn’t long left of the Three-year-Old QTIS season, so Paul found that race for her on Saturday … just gave her a freshen up.

“That was five weeks between runs so Paul did a really good job freshening her up and having her ready for the race.”

Matilly’s win on Saturday came in a significant step up in class … from a BM60 at provincial level at Toowoomba to a QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap at Metropolitan level.

The betting for the race was dominated by the Tony Gollan trained Golden Boom who, at $1.80 was one of only two runners quoted in single figures. Matilly started at $15.

Golden Boom deserved that status, but it came with weight penalty. Having won all three starts in his first preparation, including a win in the Listed Gold Edition … and then added another win in his subsequent three starts to come into Saturday’s race with a record of four wins from seven starts … Golden Boom was weighted with the steadying burden of 60.5kg … 6.5kg more than the 54kg Matilly was set to carry.

“To beat a horse like Golden Boom … he did have to give us 6.5kg,” conceded Stanley, “but Matilly beat him fair and square under the race conditions.”

“That’s what I mean. Every time you ask her for something, she just keeps giving. Like in the previous start at Toowoomba where she just fell in, she was under pressure and they really had her struggling at the top of the straight and she just kept digging in and probably her ability got her over the line.

“She’s got ability, but she really tries hard … which is a big thing … she really digs in and has a go.

“On Saturday, once I got across … a bit easer than I thought I would actually … I was pretty confident she would be hard to run down. The favourite probably headed her coming to the 100m … probably put a half-neck on her … but she was able to wear that margin back and get the job done again.”

Four wins from four starts. You simply can’t argue with a perfect record … or the prowess of a formidable team.

Justin Stanley … as always is the consummate professional.

As for Paul Wallace … well, he is clearly very much back in business ... … and not just because of his success with Matilly ... but because the stable is clearly a coming force

In the three months since April 4, the Wallace stable has sent out ten winners from only twenty runners at an amazing fifty-precent winning strike rate.

That’s about as good as it gets!

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