EF MAY 01 - SHABANA SHOWS HER METTLE

By Graham Potter and Matthew Grimson | Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Eagle Farm, May 1, 2010.
Class 6 Handicap - 1600m. Time: 1:36.14. (carrying 55.5kg).
Track - Dead 4. Rail - out 8m.
1 Shabana; 2 Jackpot; Tarrayoukyan

The Gregory Hickman trained Shabana never went around a single horse when railing up from off the pace to sustain a strong run in the home straight to earn the honours by half-neck from Jackpot.

The latter had set the target from the break, taking the field along at an easy gallop in the early part. Tarrayoukyan sat a length back outside the leader with Morsecodian (one out) and Cool Edition (on the inside) holding a watching brief in third and fourth place respectively.

Those runners in turn were followed by Surefirerose on the outside of Eddie Rapido. At that stage jockey Larry Cassidy was happy to allow Shabana to run her own race while strategically positioned in a ground-saving position back along the rail in seventh spot.

Tarrayoukyan started to put pressure on Jackpot approaching the turn and he tried to go up to join the leader on straightening. Cool Edition, the favourite, also cornered full of running while Shabana just had to wait on a run momentarily before being able to extend along the inside running rail after Eddie Rapido, who was racing ahead of her, shifted off the fence.

Shabana had it all to do as Jackpot continued to kick on strongly up front where he was holding off the determined challenge of Tarrayoukyan.

Try as he might, Tarrayoukyan just could not find the extra required to reel in the front-runner. Similarly, Cool Edition was chasing hard, but did not have the fire-power to shoot down the two leaders.

That was when Shabana appeared as the fresh horse in the picture.

The filly had taken a while to build momentum, but she did just that under the strong urgings of Cassidy. By the 200m mark she was up to fourth place, two lengths behind Jackpot.

With 75m left to run Shabana was up to second and closing rapidly on Jackpot and she nailed the leader inside the final 20m to win by a half-neck margin.

Shabana was one of only two three-year-olds in the line-up (the other was Benefaction) and the manner in which she dealt with her older rivals bodes well for the future.

Shabana has now won two from two this prep. She was winless in her two previous preparations but did show a degree of promise during that time where her run of results included a 2.50 length second placing to Faint Perfume over 1400m at Warwick Farm.

Since that result the Bart Cummings trained Faint Perfume has gone on to win two Group 1’s (the Crown Oaks and the Vinery Stud Stakes) as well as two Group 2 features (the Wakeful and the Kewney Stakes).

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Gregory Hickman: “Yeah, she has shown us a fair bit of promise along the way. We had a little bit of a problem with her at Newcastle. She played up in the gates. We had to tip her out for a month.

“She has come back and since she’s come back and she’s won two races, so she’s had plenty of ground work.

“We’ve had to go a funny way to get where we want to go to the Oaks but she’s tough enough and I think she is just a good staying filly. She did handle the step up in distance (from 1200m to 1600m), and I think she has sort of trained herself to get there. We haven’t had to do a lot with her. As you can see she is a light, little filly and I just think she’ll stay all day.”

Jockey Larry Cassidy: “She went nice and it was a very good training effort. She won midweek at Canterbury over 1200 and then second up went up to a mile, so that’s a very good training effort by Greg (Hickman).

“I was sort of back, four pairs back, and I was sort of looking to get off the fence to try and make my run into the race at about the 600.

"One sort of went around me and the horse in front of me was slowing down, so I had the option when I seen them all coming wider. I thought well, I’ll just switch back to the inside and it certainly was the shortest way home.

“Yeah, most certainly, I think she can go on further. Greg said the most important thing was to get her relaxed. He said I don’t really care where you are in the run just get her to relax and run the journey. I thought she relaxed nice enough, so I don’t think she’ll have a problem with the Oaks distance.

“I was quite impressed with her. I thought it was a really good grinding effort in the straight. She kept finding the line strongly. She didn’t sprint, but she just sort of kept coming to the line really hard and that is a good sign for a horse that is looking to get over further.

“In the early part of the straight I thought, well we’re going to run a really good second or third and as we got close to home I thought, no, we’ve got them. So, yeah, it was a really good grinding effort.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Shabana): 4.40 out to 5.00.
Favourite (Cool Edition): 3.20 out to 3.30 in to 3.20. Finished fifth.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Che Casino (M. Cahill) jumped away awkwardly and missed the start. Shabana (L. Cassidy), which jumped away awkwardly, was hampered shortly after the start by Morsecodian (M. Hellyer), which was taken in by Tarrayoukyan (C. Munce).

Near the 1200m Morsecodian had to be steadied to avoid the heels of Tarrayoukyan.

Morsecodian was inclined to pull hard in the middle stages.

Near the 500m Cool Edition (P. Hammersley) shifted out to improve and made contact with Morsecodian, forcing it wider.

Pleasure Time (R. McMahon) was inclined to lay in approaching the finish line.

P. Hammersley reported that Cool Edition jumped away well and took up a position as instructed in the first half of the field, however in consideration of the horse's finishing effort he was of the opinion that Cool Edition would be better suited ridden from a more rearward position.

A post-race veterinary examination of Cool Edition revealed the horse to be lame in the offside foreleg and sore in both front fetlocks. Trainer T. Crane was advised that a veterinary certificate of fitness will be required before the horse races again.

When questioned as to the riding tactics on Benefaction, B. Stewart explained that he had been instructed to ride the horse quietly from its wide barrier and after settling back in the field he intended to trail Kyros (S. Seamer), however when the pace quickened after leaving the 600m Kyros did not progress forward as anticipated.

He added that Benefaction was not entirely suited by the tempo of the race today and whilst able to test his mount in the straight, it was held up for clear running over the latter stages.

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