IPSW JUNE 19 - OUR LUKAS RACES INTO RECORD BOOKS

By Graham Potter | Monday, June 21, 2010

Ipswich, June 19, 2010.
Ipswich Cup (Listed - Quality) - 2150m. Time: 2-10.60 (Carrying 56kg).
Track - Good 2. Rail - True.
1 Our Lukas; 2 Frozone; 3 Warrior Within.

The six-year-old gelding Our Lukas rewrote the record books at Ipswich on Saturday when he came home under an inch perfect ride by Stathi Katsidis to claim his second successive Ipswich Cup victory.

History suggested that the odds were very much against the chestnut going into the race.

Prior to Saturday, no horse had won two Ipswich Cups … never mind two-in-a-row … and you had to go back twenty-nine years to find the last horse (Golden Rhapsody) to win the race carrying more than 55.5kg (Our Lukas was set to carry 56kg).

The last historical hurdle Our Lukas had to overcome had a touch of irony about it. As the majority of punters believed Our Lukas had the credentials to get the job done in spite of the statistical evidence against him, bookmakers installed Our Lukas as favourite for the race thus creating a further element in the debit column. In the last forty-eight years (dating back to 1962) only six outright favourites had won the Cup.

But, significantly, that short list of ‘favourite’ winners did include the name of Our Lukas himself. He started a $3.80 favourite in 2009 when he smashed his opposition. On Saturday he was the $3.40 favourite.

Two other factors could be marked down in the credit column. Our Lukas was unbeaten in two starts over the track and distance and the gelding had won his last start in facile fashion when accounting for Rockdale over 1600m at Eagle Farm just a week earlier, confirming he was as hard as nails for this encounter.

In the run prior to that Our Lukas had finished a two length second to no less an opponent than Rothesay, who proved to be one of the stars of the Winter Carnival. That certainly translated into winning form in the 2010 Ipswich Cup line-up. Now Our Lukas just had to prove his worth.

Trainer Robert Heathcote was in a quietly confident mood before the Cup. Speaking to HRO before the start of the meeting Heathcote agreed with the assessment that he arguably had the best horse in the race.

“Yes I think so,” Heathcote said, “… and he’s been primed for this race. You know he does have to create history to win the race, but I’m quite happy to go into it and see how things unfold.

“The front-runner (Sir Time Keeper) is always a danger, but he should start feeling the pressure now.” (Sir Time Keeper was racing for the fifth Saturday in a row). “Frozone is one I worry about. I respect any horse that Alan Bailey turns out … but, yeah, Our Lukas has got a good chance, even if he has got a bit to overcome.

Heathcote’s respect for fellow trainer Alan Bailey’s expertise was well-founded. Bailey’s runner Frozone was by no means the longest priced runner in the line-up, but he remained easy to back as his price fluctuated from $10 to a starting price of $11.

$3.40 (Our Lukas) plays $11 (Frozone) … no, it was going to get a lot closer than that!

The field had the whole length of the main straight to sort themselves out in the early part and Sir Time Keeper ($9) duly took up his established front-running role coming past the grandstand for the first time.

Katsidis had done enough to get Our Lukas across from his extreme outside draw to settle in second position while Scott Seamer had also displayed similar prowess in the saddle to get Frozone onto the back of Our Lukas to take up third place after jumping from the second widest draw.

It wasn’t completely apparent at the time, but the battle lines had already been drawn between Our Lukas and Frozone and their test of strength would go down to the very last stride.

As Sir Time Keeper continued to set the target up front, Seamer pushed Frozone past Our Lukas at the 1200m and went forward to sit on the heels of the leader as the duo took the field down the back straight. Katsidis, for his part, was content to let Our Lukas settle in a comfortable third place, getting the run of the race some two-and-a-half lengths off the speed.

These runners held station until the middle of the sweep to the turn where Frozone started to apply serious pressure on Sir Time Keeper. Alert to Frozone’s early move at the traditional 600m take-off point at Ipswich, Katsidis also started to get to work on Our Lukas and the chestnut edged closer to the action.

Sir Time Keeper folded quickly this time and Frozone surged to the front approaching the turn with Seamer riding hard as he tried to steal a winning advantage. Our Lukas also easily dispatched the fast-tiring Sir Time Keeper as he matched Frozone’s every move and the 2009 Ipswich Cup winner straightened in second spot two lengths behind Frozone.

That’s when it officially became a two-horse race.

Frozone kicked hard at the top of the straight. Our Lukas accelerated on cue and started to reel in his rival. By the 150m mark Our Lukas was ranging up alongside Frozone. By the 100m he looked like he would run right past Frozone (Katsidis had confidently looked behind him for any other dangers with 120m left to run), but the latter remained full of fight and fought back to force the contest into a head-bobbing duel which was only decided by a photo-finish on the line where the decision went the way of Our Lukas and thereby entrenched his name into the record books.

It was a thrilling win in historic circumstances. The race time of 2-10.60 was the second fastest time in the last decade (the fastest was the 2-10.45 set by Sphenophyta in 2006) and was substantially faster than the time Our Lukas recorded in the 2009 running of the race when he finished in 2-13.87 carrying 3kg less than he did when completing the double.

Spare a thought for the connections of Frozone. The four-year-old was only a whisker away from spoiling the Our Lukas party. No cigar, but a highly creditable run, particularly as he was in aggressive mode for most of the running being given little time for a breather.

Warrior Within ($41) finished a game third. He arguably could have got closer (in terms of the margins) had he not been held up on the turn before being running on directly behind the two main players in the final chase to the line. Third place was a fair reward for a solid enough effort. The second favourite Teary Eyed ($5), after threatening to move into contention approaching the turn, failed to find the extra required to match it with the best of them and he had to settle for fourth place.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Robert Heathcote: “You know a few people have said, today you are going to have to create history to win this Cup back to back and to carry the weight he has done.

“Look, full credit to the horse. I’ve said to the owners, he’s not the fastest horse in the stable, but he certainly is the toughest. Due credit to the horse today, because I think he out-toughed them.

“I’ve never had any doubts about the horse staying. A lot of people have. He’s gone from a mile on a back-up today. I don’t know what the time was, but I imagine it would have been pretty good.

“I must be honest. I doubted he was going to get there with 200 to go. I thought, oh it looks like he might be gone, but, as I said, his biggest asset is not his speed it is his strength and he showed that today. For him to do that on a track that is probably not the best for him, I am really delighted I can tell you.

“Yeah, he was a good buy. I former client of mine had the horse and he wanted to sell it. I sent the information off to (owner) John Taylor and I said, John, have a look … I think we’ve got a good one. He’s now gone on and chalked up $500 000, so we’ve had a great ride.

“John’s been in Russia and South Africa for the last twenty years. This is the first day he has seen the horse race in the flesh.

“I’ve got the owners here today. We’ll have a look at what we do next. Certainly the Coloundra Cup would be on the cards. Last year it was a heavy 15.”

Jockey Stathi Katsidis: “He jumped better than he probably ever has since I’ve been riding him. I think the crowd got him fired up with all the electronic music up there near the barriers … it really got him fired up. We might have to get something like that behind the gates for him every time.

“Yeah, I did have a look around at about the 250m mark. I thought I had the leader (Frozone) covered and I just wanted to check what sort of intensity I had to ask from the horse.

“If there was a horse coming I would have balanced him up and waited a bit longer and then try and have one final burst … but since there wasn’t a horse coming, I sort of got going after that leader because I didn’t have to worry about anything else.

“The leader did fight back very well. I got to him and probably had him beat at the 100, but, because I went for him that little bit early because nothing else was coming, he got tired that last bit. He went from being sort of half-a-length or probably a neck in front to being a bit tired on the line.

“The other horse stuck its head right out. I thought I’d won, but Scott (Seamer - the rider of Frozone) … well I don’t know if he was sort of wishing his horse across the line … but he was pretty keen on his chances as well. His horse had a lot longer neck than my bloke. He actually thought he got me.

“It was great on all counts. The way he fought … for the crowd to see a nice tight finish, you know, so it was not just a waltz away like when he won it last year when I think he won it pretty easy. Everybody has got a bit out of it.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Our Lukas): 3.80 in to 3.70 in to 3.40.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Calatrava (J. Byrne) jumped away awkwardly and lost ground. Sir Kingsford (L. Cassidy) was slow to begin.

Frozone (S. Seamer) and Solid Billing (E. Wilkinson) raced wide until a point near the 1400m.

P. Hammersley the rider of Warrior Within was found guilty of a charge of careless riding under the provisions of AR137(a) for permitting his mount to shift out near the 500m when insufficiently clear of Sir Kingsford, resulting in that horse having to be checked to avoid the heels of Warrior Within.

P. Hammersley's licence to ride in races was suspended for a period of 6 meetings to commence at the expiration of his suspension incurred on Monday 7 June 2010, that being midnight 1 July 2010 and to expire midnight 9 July 2010.

In assessing penalty stewards were mindful of the fact that P. Hammersley is to commence a suspension of 7 meetings tonight and furthermore took into account the mitigating circumstances of today's incident.

Warrior Within was held up and unable to improve rounding the home turn.

M. Cahill the rider of Fulmonti, which performed below expectations, explained that the gelding travelled well in a rearward position until placed under pressure after leaving the 600m and was disappointed in its finishing effort from that point.
M. Cahill added that in his opinion Fulmonti is better suited on rain affected tracks. A post race veterinary examination of Fulmonti (M. Cahill) revealed no significant abnormalities.

A post race veterinary examination of Sir Slick (G. Colless) revealed no significant abnormalities. Trainer G. Nicholson advised that the gelding would be spelled immediately.