EF MAR 20 - SOILED LANDS HIS THIRD LISTED WIN

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Eagle Farm, March 20, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - True.
Tattersall's Members' Cup (Listed) - 1600m. Time: 1-34.88. (Carrying 57.5kg).
1 Soiled; 2 Cocktail Supreme; 3 Steel Lips.

The Wayne Wilkes trained Soiled confirmed his liking for Eagle Farm when he landed his third win in five starts at the track on Saturday, beating off the second placed Cocktail Supreme by 1.50 lengths.

This was the third time that Soiled had been successful in Listed race company. All three of those wins have come at Eagle Farm. Two of them were achieved when the horse was under the care of Jason Coyle during last year’s Winter Carnival.

Wilkes trained Soiled in his first preparation (six starts for four wins and one runner-up finish). After a ten month break, the horse resumed ... now in the care of trainer Anthony Cummings. Soiled had one winless preparation with Cummings before being spelled again for four months.

This time it resumed under the care of trainer Jason Coyle who trained Soiled for two separate seven-race preparations which produced four wins, including Soiled’s first two Listed wins in the Sir Edward Williams Handicap (over 1500m) and the Classic Mile (over 1600m).

Since being reunited with trainer Wayne Wilkes, Soiled has been steadily stepping up in distance, building up to peak fitness, and a big run over the 1600m here was not unexpected.

Jockey Chris Munce allowed Soiled to track the speed early before he started to home in on the leaders early in the straight. Rags To Riches, who had cut out the early gallop, gave way to Steel Lips coming through the 200m mark, but the latter only held the lead for 100m.

Soiled was clearly going the better of the two as he ranged up alongside Steel Lips with 100m left to run. In a matter of strides, Soiled gained the upper hand and went on to win by a comfortable 1.50 lengths from Cocktail Supreme who got up in the final strides to push Steel Lips back into third place.

Wilkes has now had Soiled for eleven of his twenty-eight starts and he has won five races with the gelding.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Wayne Wilkes: “I had him for his first six starts and I’ve only got him back for the five starts this prep.

“He’s been improving from one run to the next. He is an older horse. He just takes a bit longer to come up and get to his right distance, which is 1600. He looked a picture today. He’s doing well.

“No, we are not really looking at any carnival races. He is probably not up to carnival time. We’ll just keep picking his races as we go along.

“You are sort of asking a fair bit if you want him to go beyond a mile. Maybe now he might get the 1800 ... you might be able to stretch him out to that. Can he get 2000m ... I don’t think so.”

Jockey Chris Munce: “Yeah, he seems to like this track and distance. There was a helluva lot of speed in the race which I sort of expected, but not that fast. They rocked along at a pretty good gallop so it was no place for the faint-hearted.

“He just travelled nice and he was very strong in the finish. He is just a good, tough, honest racehorse.

“He came to them relatively quickly when we turned for home. Then probably the last 100 he was out on his feet and it probably just his momentum and his heart that kept him going.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Soiled): 3.30 out to 3.50 in to 3.40.
Favourite (Steel Lips): 2.50 out t0 2.70. Finished third.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Attalus (M. Hellyer) over-raced in the early stages.