SKATER GLIDES TO AN EASY SUCCESS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 2, 2023

It is always a good result to win first-up with a new horse in the stable and the Corey and Kylie Geran training partnership did just that with Skater, a four-year-old Jabali mare, who ran out a comfortable winner in a BM60 Handicap over 1660m at Toowoomba on September 2.

Jumping at $4.80 in an open betting race that saw four horses vying for positions at the top of the betting boards with their prices ranging from $4.20 to $5.50, Skater, an emergency acceptor, was chased around his field early from a wide draw by Nozi Tomizawa and he reached the lead by the time the field had travelled 250m.

Skater held that advantage going down the first half of the back straight with a number of horses hard on his heels … and when Mordecai ($10), who had been caught wide, made a quick forward move and tried to challenge Skater for the outright lead at the 1200m, Tomizawa just asked Skater to quicken up a bit to hold Mordecai out, which he did, before settling in to lead the pack again on his terms, racing just under a length ahead of Mordecai along the rest of the back straight.

In the sweep to the home turn though, ever so gradually, Skater started to stretch his advantage. First, he put second placed Mordecai a length back … then two lengths … and, such was his resolute gallop, that he had established a three-length buffer by the time the field turned for home.

Mordecai was already gone at that stage and falling away, which left it up to the $4.50 chance Lizzie’s Pride to lead the chase after Skater but, with Skater showing no signs of coming back to his field in spite of being made use of early, it quickly became apparent that the runners behind him were only really competing for the minor placings.

in the end, Skater’s win was probably a little bit easier than the official 1.80 length winning margin suggests, as, at no stage in the run-in was he ever in danger of defeat.
________________________________________________________________________

One race after Skater’s win, the Corey and Kylie Geran team came close to making it a double on the night, but Rugged Woman (a $2.60 favourite), after enjoying the run of the race, found one too good her in the form of the fast finishing $5 chance Brave Boy who beat her home by a length. This was Rugged Wonan’s third successive runner-up finish.