EF JULY 24 - FIFTEEN CARAT SHINES AGAIN

By Graham Potter | Monday, July 26, 2010

Eagle Farm, July 24, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail out 2.5m.
Tattersall's Mile (Quality - Listed) - 1600m.
Time: 1-35.87. (Carrying 55kg).
1 Fifteen Carat; 2 Bold Glance; 3 Deacon.

Fifteen Carat continues to repay the confidence shown in him by trainer Howard Wilson.

The chestnut ended his three-year-old campaign by completing back-to-back wins when outgunning the useful Bold Glance in a stirring two-way battle to the line in the Tattersall's Mile over 1600m at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

This success came three weeks after Fifteen Carat's victory in the Sunshine Coast Guineas and the gelding will now be given a similar break before coming back and starting a new campaign in which he will target the Epsom in Sydney.

With regular pilot Stathi Katsidis stood down for the day, the task of directing Fifteen Carat's fortunes fell to jockey Glen Colless. Such is the level Colless's experience, it seemed as if he understood every trait of his mount as he, as per instructions, asked Fifteen Carat to do very little in the early stages.

Rockdale was the early leader with Bold Glance hard held in second place and Silver Spur pulling while trapped wide in third spot, but there was little speed on, so, although Fifteen Carat raced in sixth place in the eight-horse field at this stage, he was only a little over three lengths off the early frontrunner.

As there was no increase in tempo approaching the first turn, jockey Jim Byrne pushed Silver Spur forward and he assumed the lead. Bold Glance went with him to maintain second place. Rockdale went back to third, while Fifteen Carat held his station. He was still sixth, now four lengths behind the new leader.

The speed was still pretty ordinary in the sweep to the home turn (the final race time would be 2.47 seconds outside the race record) and Silver Spur was able to straighten up with a length advantage over Bold Glance who raced on the outside of the leader.

Colless now had Fifteen Carat up to fifth place. The gelding cornered four-wide with an uninterrupted run to the line ahead of him. The result was there for the taking if he was good enough.

Byrne got busy on Silver Spur early in the straight, but Bold Glance had the bigger kick of the two and the Norm Hilton trainer runner surged past Silver Spur.

To his credit, Silver Spur did try to fight back, but once Bold Glance had edged ahead he did not going to offer Silver Spur any chance to get back into the contest.

While these two runners were fighting for supremacy over each other, Colless had quietly moved Fifteen Carat into a clear third position while still riding only hands and heels.

Then it was his turn to get busy. Colless became more vigorous as he finally gave Fifteen Carat the green light and asked him to go about his business.

Inside the final 150m, Fifteen Carat had got past Silver Spur. By the 100 mark he was alongside Bold Glance and the stride-for -stride fight between Fifteen Carat and Bold Glance over the concluding stages was a spirited one.

Bold Glance never gave an inch and battled bravely (he was carrying 2.5kg more than Fifteen Carat), but Fifteen Carat was going just that little bit better and Colless was able to urge the chestnut to short-head victory.

Fifteen Carat is now a four-time winner from fifteen starts.

WINNER FEEDBACK
Trainer Howard Wilson: "He did settle beautifully in the run. It's the first time Glen's ever ridden him too.

"He'll get three weeks off now and then I'll get him ready for the Epsom. That's my plan. That's why we ran him him today ... to make sure he got a run.

"I've hardly ever had any runners in those big races down there. I've won two Villiers, but I've never had a Group 1 horse.

"He's a good horse. He's a better horse than I've had before."

Jockey Glen Colless: "Howard (Wilson) said, just ride him nice and quiet. That's what I did.

"I just sort of let him fall out of the gates. He just lobbed along. They swapped and changed a few times.

"That thing came up on the inside at the half-mile and then got off the fence and went outside me. He just came back out of it. You know, it never seems to faze him.

"At one stage I did think he would win by a bit more than he did, but, that horse that he got past (Bold Glance) is not a bad old horse and, you now. Three-year-olds don't beat those old horses pretty often. They have got to be above average to do that. He stuck to his guns well."

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Fifteen Carat): 2.70 out to 3.00.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Fifteen Carat (G. Colless) jumped away awkwardly.

When the pace steadied approaching the 1200m Silver Spur (J. Byrne) commenced to over-race at the heels of Bold Glance (C. Munce) and shifted out resulting in Intertheblack (R. Wiggins) being hampered and taken wider on the track.

Silver Spur continued to over-race and was allowed to stride forward to the lead near the 1000m. J. Byrne stated that due to the horse over-racing he had no alternative other than to shift out from behind the heels of Bold Glance.

He added that it had been intended to have the horse positioned handy with cover, however the horse again over-raced today and he had no alternative other than to shift out three wide and allow the horse to stride forward.

Intertheblack raced wide throughout.

After passing the 200m Intertheblack shifted out and bumped Foxham (B. Stewart). A short distance later Foxham was again inconvenienced by Deacon (L. Cassidy) which shifted in slightly.