RHILL JULY 17 - ATOMIC FORCE TOO POWERFUL FOR HIS RIVALS

By Garry Legg | Sunday, July 18, 2010

Rosehill Gardens, July 17, 2010.
Track - Dead (5). Rail - out 6m.
2GB Handicap BenchMark 90 (3yo and upwards) -1100m.
Margins - 1.50 Lengths, Short Head. Time: 1-04.55.
1 Atomic Force ($3.50 favourite); 2 Onthelookout ($21); 3 Empire Place ($6.50)

Atomic Force began well and showed good early speed to cross to the fence and lead. Apprentice Blake Spriggs immediately applied the brakes on and allowed Empire Place and Second String to go ahead.

By the time the field reached the 600m Empire Place had taken the outright lead with Second String sitting about a length behind with Atomic Force travelling well in the box seat behind the leader.

Empire Place led the field into the straight and was held together. Spriggs had a lapful of horse, but for a few strides was held in a pocket by the tiring Second String.

Empire Place found something at the 200m and booted about a length clear, but Spriggs angled out on Atomic Force and the gelding quickly gathered in the leader at the 120m before racing away to give Spriggs his third winner for the day.

It was the easiest win for the hoop, who did not even have to pull the whip on the favourite and eased the Darren Smith trained four-year-old down on the line.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Darren Smith: ‘’He was back down in the weights and on a dry track.

‘’He’s a lot better horse on top of the ground, you know. Sure he did win on a wet track the other day at Randwick, but it was about race two or three by the time they got through Randwick last week it was, you know, a ploughed paddock, so, today he really sprinted well.

‘’Yeh, he’s a happy horse, so being up on the farm at William Town and you know, heading to the beach and whatever … he’s going good.

‘’Funny enough, he was on the float to the spelling paddock on Monday and we looked at the noms and said, oh well, we’ll give it a crack, so the float had to go back to the spelling paddock to pick him up.

PRICES:
Winner (Atomic Force): 3.50.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Second String jumped out at the start, hampering Innings. Fitness Fanatic shifted in at the start, crowding Back On Top in onto Flushing Meadows.

After travelling a short distance, Zarvista, which was shifting in, clipped the heels of Atomic Force, which shifted out slightly. In the incident Zarvista blundered badly.

Passing the 300m, as Atomic Force shifted out to improve to the outside of the heels of
Empire Place, Second String shifted out away from Atomic Force, resulting in Confessional having to be steadied off the heels of that runner when disappointed or a run between Second String and Back On Top.

When questioned concerning his riding of Back On Top, particularly in the early stages, C Brown stated that he had no specific riding instructions, but after being crowded on jumping away, Back On Top did not show a lot of pace and, as there appeared to be too much speed inside him, rather than come across with Empire Place, he elected to look
for a position with cover, however, when Confessional did not shift to the rails
and then a short distance later when Second String shifted out from the rails to the
one out position in advance of Confessional, he was trapped wide for the remainder
of the journey.

C Brown agreed that, in retrospect, he had erred in not being more positive and pressing forward early with the probable leader, Empire Place, with a view to taking up a position to the outside of that runner.