CAUL JULY 17 - BLUEBLOOD TRIUMPHS AT CAULFIELD

By Taron Clarke | Sunday, July 18, 2010

Caulfield, July 17, 2010.
Track – Dead 5. Rail – True.
3YO Handicap - 2000m. Time: 2-04.98. (Carrying 53kg).
1 Triumphant Choice; 2 Beijing Boy; 3 Meet Me At Raffles.

The first leg of a winning double for the Peter Moody, Luke Nolen and Dynamic Syndications team was the impeccably bred Triumphant Choice at Caulfield.

A one million dollar purchase at the 2008 Magic Millions Yearling Sale, Triumphant Choice was bred by Gerry Harvey, who incidentally retains a percentage of the imposing son of Redoutes Choice.

The three year old colt has been sparingly raced to date with only seven career starts after suffering an injury enforced break of fourteen months in the paddock.

The colt is a half-brother to 2004 Cox Plate hero Savabeel, and his dam Savannah Success, was herself a group one winner of the Ansett Australia Stakes back in 1999, so there is no doubting the pedigree is there for Triumphant Choice to potentially be a super star of the Australasian turf.

Breeding is one thing, but to capitalise on the potential given to a galloper and emulate the feats of blueblood relatives on the track is another, but Triumphant Choice made a step in the right direction with an authoritive victory at Caulfield.

Ridden by Moody’s stable jockey Luke Nolen, Triumphant Choice began well from his wide barrier and Nolen had no reservations allowing the blueblood colt plenty of time to balance up in the second half of the field, one off the fence spotting the leaders Maxmollieava and top weight Stoneblack eight lengths, as the field climbed the hill at the back of the track.

Approaching the 800 metre mark, jockey Glen Boss allowed his mount Stoneblack to slide up outside of and eye-ball the outright leader Maxmollieava and they slapped the speed on which saw the favourite Triumphant Choice now spotting the leaders ten lengths.

It was at this time that jockey Nolen bit the bullet and allowed the free striding son of Redoutes Choice some more galloping room and brought him to the outside to commence his run.

Four and five wide the big rangy colt came around the field to close within three lengths of the leaders as the field wheeled for home.

In the early part of the straight Triumphant Choice had moved up on the outside of early leaders Maxmollieava and Stoneblack, but pushing up inside him was the Damien Oliver mount Beijing Bolt, who was under pressure, and Meet Me At Raffles, ridden by leading Victorian apprentice Jason Maskiell, who had enjoyed all the favours saving ground towards the inside.

A brief bumping duel between Beijing Bolt and Meet Me At Raffles enabled Triumphant Choice to keep the momentum, that he had gathered around the turn and in the early part of the straight and he bound away into what looked like a winning lead.

Over the concluding stages the lack of racing showed in Triumphant Choice’s racing manners as he wanted to lay in and get down to the running rail, but the damage had been done and the blueblood careered away to win by two-and-three-quarter lengths from Beijing Boy with a further neck back to Meet Me At Raffles in third place.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Peter Moody: “He is a magnificent individual with a hell of a pedigree so he comes with that little bit of baggage, but he has always shown that every time we have done something with him he has improved that bit off it.

You just look at him. He is a quality animal. You just hope he takes that to the racetrack performance and he has continued to improve again today.

“He is the sort of horse that might develop a turn of foot in time but he just doesn’t know how to do it yet. He is still climbing and wandering and for that reason you’ve probably got to ride him a little bit wild and he has had to make a long sustained run and it probably didn’t look the prettiest, but it was what was required to get the horse to do his best on the day.

“We’ve probably got to take the foot off the pedal a little bit now and reassess. He’s still got to well and truly go through his grades, but I think we’ve got to lift the bar again so I would think probably just a little ease up.

"He is a big entire. He doesn’t want a break and you’ve only got to look at him to see how well he is. We will probably nominate him for some better races in the spring, but whether it is the spring or the autumn I think he is going to end up a very nice handicapper ... and if he improves maybe beyond that.”

Syndicator Dean Watt: “We can’t do our job without having great owners ... a million dollar colt and you put them in the paddock for fourteen months after they break down in races.

"It’s a tribute to the systems that we have in place and the quality of the horseman that we employ not only in the stables, but in the spelling paddocks, the recuperation in the water farms and all the rest of it.

"This is a real team effort and we have got some great owners in the horse as you can see in the book, but credit to Pete, because it has been a long haul.

"We gave him a pretty big job to do, but he deserved it. He won me a Group 1 with Reward For Effort and I wanted to give him another nice horse - and he’s got it.”

Jockey Luke Nolen: “He’s in slow motion a bit. He is not all there. He hasn’t furnished totally physically or mentally and when the penny drops and when he actually does fill into himself we are going to have a nice exciting horse to play with.”

“He is an out and out stayer and we probably worked that out at his first run for us on the wet track at Ballarat. He certainly doesn’t pick up and sprint. He is a real staying horse and I think he is going to furnish into a nice horse later on.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Triumphant Choice): 2.50 out to 2.80.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Mayweather and Cranleigh were slow to begin. Maxmollieava pulled hard in the early stages.

G Boss reported that Stoneblack over-raced in the early stages when racing to the outside of Maxmollieava. A veterinary examination of Stoneblack revealed no abnormalities.

After leaving the 700m, Countcool was held up and was unable to improve, for a short distance

Cranleigh and Cheerful Jury were held up approaching and rounding the home turn.

Near the 200m, Triumphant Choice shifted in under pressure, taking Beijing Bolt in on to Meet Me At Raffles. Near the 200m, the whip of C Newitt was accidentally knocked from his hand by the whip of D Nikolic (Cranleigh).

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