KEEPING THE SCOREBOARD MOVING

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, November 7, 2023

On two of the biggest days on the racing calendar, Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day, the Corey and Kylie Geran training partnership quietly kept the scoreboard moving, saddling three winners … two at their home track at Toowoomba and one at Dalby.

Tokyo Sins, who was having her first run since relocating to the Geran yard, came into a Ratings 0-58 Handicap over 1000m at Toowoomba on November 4 after having a break from racing of a little under three months.

She had recorded one win in ten previous starts (over 1200m in a Maiden at Warwick), and she immediately doubled her number of wins first-up for the Geran yard when scoring by 0.20 lengths under the guidance of apprentice Oliva Webb.

Jumping as the $1.85 favourite in a five horse field, Tokyo Sins landed third and then was quickly up to second, holding the rail position a length off the leader, the $8 chance Acirema.

Webb switched Tokyo Sins out across Acirema’s heels to race one wide approaching the home turn and then quickly moved the daughter of Mikki Isle up alongside … and then passed the early leader on straightening.

Tokyo Sins then led the run home all the way to the line, doing enough to ward off the late charge of the $3.40 second favourite Beau Witness, who ran on strongly from behind to get within 0.20 lengths of the winner at the line.
____________________________________________________________________

On the same day that Tokyo Sins won, down Dalby way Jack Be Lucky was making it back-to-back wins in a BM65 Handicap over 1000m.

Jack Be Lucky’s previous win at Gympie had secured him his place in the Country Stampede Final at Doomben in December, provided that other criteria were met. That included a condition that the Stampede is restricted to horses who have started in a minimum of five races at country race meetings during the twelve month period leading into the Stampede Final.

So, Jack Be Lucky went to Dalby (he will also go to Roma) to fulfill that requirement … and winning along the way obviously makes that journey even better.

While only two lengths covered the entire five horse field at Dalby in the race contested by Jack Be Lucky, that fact reflected more on the chase for the minor places than Jack Be Lucky’s winning effort as he came home 1.25 lengths clear of his nearest rival with only 0.50 lengths covering the next four horses across the line.
_______________________________________________________________________

Anthropica, for her part, turned around an ordinary run of form this preparation (six unplaced runs) to claim a welcome victory, the third of the six-year-old’s career, in a Ratings 0-52 Handicap over 1300m at Toowoomba on November 7.

Jockey Gary Geran, who had not ridden the mare in any of those last six runs, was reunited with Anthropica here, who started on the second line of betting at $3 behind the $1.85 main fancy Dante Alighieri.

The favourite wouldn’t feature in the result, but Anthropica did find one that she had to beat, the $8.50 chance Await The Storm.

The latter carried 3,5kg less than the Geran trained runner and fought hard to try and make that weight advantage count, but Anthropica prevailed on the day to score by 0.50 lengths.

More articles