CANT APR 28 - CONNERS HAS NO HESITATION HEADING FOR TJ SMITH

By Graham Potter | Friday, April 30, 2010

Canterbury, April 28, 2010.
Track - Good. Rail - Out 3m.
NMW Handicap (Special Conditions - 2yo) - 1250m. Time: 1-13.91.
1 No Hestitaion ($26.00); 2 American Crew ($8.00); 3 Tough Of Greatness ($3.80).
Margins 1.50 x short-neck.
Favourite (Ms Chief Bound $2.50): Finished sixth. (See Stewards Report).

When nominations closed on Tuesday for the $500000 TJ Smith Stakes, which will be run at Eagle Farm on June 12, the name of the Clarry Conners trained No Hesitation was not on the list.

A day later the son of Not A Single Doubt changed his personal landscape with a comprehensive, come-from behind win at long odds at Canterbury. The result had Conners immediately reaching for the phone as he set about making arrangements to pay the $1100 late entry fee for the TJ Smith before the first stage of late nominations closed on Thursday.

No Hesitation was the third emergency at Canterbury and so he had the good fortune to find himself in the race following four scratchings.

The gelding lost his original jockey when Peter Robl was declared the replacement rider for Josh Parr who was overweight. Parr could not have ridden the horse any better than Robl though as the rider did everything right in playing his part in securing a valuable victory.

Robl took No Hesitation back in the early part. The gelding raced in the second half of the field, some eight lengths off Gai Waterhouse trained pair of Touch Of Greatness (second favourite at $3.75) and the main fancy Ms Chief Bound ($2.75) who chased out to the front immediately from the barriers in an attempt to make the race there own. American Crew ($8.00) settled in third, taking the trail behind the leaders.

Touch Of Greatness’s favourable draw gave her the edge on her better fancied stable companion in the early stages and she kept her stable-mate a length in arrears until the turn.

On straightening it quickly became apparent that the chasing Ms Chief Bound was in trouble and unable to do anything about the frontrunner.

As Ms Chief Bound began to weaken, American Crew switched out around heels and lined up his challenge while Zing And Swing ($11.00) started to creep up along the inside rail.

No Hesitation meanwhile had started to build momentum in the sweep to the turn and he improved his position approaching the home turn where he cornered in sixth place, still some five lengths adrift of Touch Of Greatness who was battling away gamely in her attempt to land an end to end victory.

In the first half of the straight American Crew painstakingly began to reel in Touch Of Greatness. Although there was nothing flash about American Crew’s grinding progress, halfway up the straight it seemed he was probably just doing enough to be able to get to Touch Of Greatness in time, but as No Hesitation reached the 150m mark, now four lengths off the lead, that observation became irrelevant. It was at that moment that No Hesitation found an extra gear that none of his rivals carried in their armoury on the day.

No Hesitation’s race-winning turn of foot saw him sweep up to and go right past the other main contenders to have the result safe within his keeping inside the final 50m.

The clear-cut winning margin of 1.50 lengths underlines just how quickly No Hesitation finished off his race.
American Crew did reel in Touch Of Greatness close to the line but, in the end, that duel was only to decide second and third place.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Clarry Conners: “His first start was a real good run at Randwick (where he finished fifth, 1.60 lengths off Praecido over 1150m). They all came to the outside and sort of squeezed down the outside fence.

“Then the other day here (over 1200m at Canterbury) we sort of tried to chase him. He chased the leaders and he was sort of one-batted.

“I put the blinkers on him, because I thought I’ve got to do something because he is a very relaxed quiet horse. We thought we’d ride him a bit quiet today and see if he could get home. You know, the horse has been working the place down. I like the horse a real lot so I thought he’d run very well if anything went like the script at home.”

Jockey Peter Robl: “He travelled terrific, you know. Clarry (Conners) said he goes nice. He travelled terrific in the run and coming to the corner all he needed was a bit of luck to get to the outside.

“Once he got to the outside he probably took a hundred yards to hit the ground and let down. Once he did find momentum he hit the line good and won nicely.”

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
As J Parr was overweight, permission was granted for P Robl to be substituted as the rider of No Hesitation. J Parr will be interviewed at a time and date to be fixed.

Trainer Mrs G Waterhouse was fined $50 under LR35 for failing to declare App. B Spriggs as the rider of Ms Chief Bound by the prescribed time.

Kings And Jacks began awkwardly, shifted in at the start and made contact with Touch Of Greatness.
Remraam began awkwardly. Musheer was slowly away. Tawny Eagle was slow to begin (2L).

Rounding the first turn No Hesitation hung out and hampered Colony. Coustellet had a tendency to lay out after the 700m, resulting in Musheer being hampered and carried wider.

Approaching the 200m Tawny Eagle was steadied and shifted to the outside of Remraam, which shifted in.

A post race veterinary examination of Ms Chief Bound revealed the filly to be making an abnormal respiratory noise and displaying a poor post race recovery. Trainer Mrs G Waterhouse was advised that a veterinary clearance would be required for Ms Chief Bound, including the results of an endoscopic examination.