EF JULY 24 - GENERAL PURPLE PULLS RANK

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Eagle Farm, July 24, 2010.
Track - Good 3. Rail - out 2.5m.
Des Lambart Memorial handicap (Class 6) - 1400m.
Time: 1-23.10. (Carrying 54kg).
1 General Purple; 2 Equable; 3 Beyonce's Star.

The ever-consistent General Purple gained due reward for his efforts when he held off the persistent challenge of his market rival Equable to score by a hard-fought, half-head margin.

The result gave jockey Larry Cassidy his fourth winner for the day and it continued the good run of trainer Brian Smith who, as he always does when his stable slides into form, has been churning winners out on a regular basis in recent weeks.

Beyonce’s Star went out to set the early target. She raced a length in front of Tootsie Zynsky while the main fancies, General Purple and Equable, settled in just off the speed in third and fourth placing respectively.

General Purple was inclined to pull a bit, but Cassidy had a hard hold him, while jockey Jim Byrne positioned Equable just to the rear and to the outside of General Purple, happy to keep a watching brief.

That is until the field moved up to the final turn where Byrne pushed Equable up on the outside of General Purple. That took away Cassidy’s option of slipping out around the heels of Tootsie Zynsky and, in the early part of the straight, General Purple was held in a pocket along the inside running rail with nowhere to go.

General Purple’s race could have been lost there, but two factors kept him in the contest.

The first was that Equable took time to build momentum. That meant that, although he had clear running while General Purple was biding his time waiting for an opening, Equable did not gain any significant advantage at this time.

Instead, he was still only level with General Purple when the second factor came into play as Cassidy finally pushed his mount past a weakening Toosie Zynsky with 230m left to run and found space to shift away from the rail and go after the long-time leader Beyonce’s Star. Equable was on the same mission.

When he got into clear General Purple accelerated immediately and in a few strides he gained a narrow advantage over Equable. Both still had to run down the game Beyonce’s Star, but they did that with 75m left to run.

At that stage it looked as if General Purple had already done enough, but his tendency to switch off when he finds the lead nearly proved costly as Equable came back again at General Purple with the latter having to rally late to secure victory, which in the end was achieved by a diminishing half-head margin.

Jockey Jim Byrne used his prerogative to view the race film to see if he grounds for an objection against the winner. The news of that sent Cassidy running from the winners’ enclosure back to the Stewards room, but there was no need for him to rush as, after viewing the film, Byrne decided against lodging a protest.

General Purple has now won four and he has been placed in ten of his twenty-one starts.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Brian Smith: “He never runs a bad race, does he? He had a lovely draw today. Did you see him at the furlong. The minute he hits the front he looks around. He stargazed there again today and it nearly gave it away before he knuckled down again.

“You know, he is a promising horse and he’s stayed up a fair while this time. It’s good when you have a horse that can win races and is consistent.

“People say I’m winning a lot of races at the moment, but listen, every win like that is exciting because you never take anything for granted in this game.”

Jockey Larry Cassidy: “He wanted to pull up on me the bugger. He got to the front and wanted to pull up on me.

“I sort of took my time because Brian (Smith) said, don’t go too soon. He is a keen going horse. He was going too keen and my saddle was a bit uncomfortable on him so I was just trying to stay still.

“I didn’t want to get out too soon, but I was in a sort of tight corner so I just started dancing my way out. When I finally let him down and he burst through. He was going to win easy and he pricked his ears the bugger and tried to pull up. I swear.

“I think he is a pretty smart horse. He just needs to settle. I reckon he’s more a six furlong horse. He might be better going back to six furlongs.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (General Purple): 4.60 out to 4.80 in to 3.70.
Favourite (Equable): 2.40 out to 2.80. Finished second.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Correct weight was delayed to allow J. Byrne, rider of 2nd place-getter Equable, to exercise his right to view the stewards' patrol film to ascertain whether he had grounds against the winner over the final 200m.

After viewing the film, J. Byrne indicated that he did not wish to proceed with lodging an objection and correct weight was declared on the Judge's numbers.

Main Vein (M. Hellyer), Academy Magic (Michael Palmer) and Absent Friends (G. Colless) jumped away awkwardly.

General Purple (L. Cassidy) over-raced in the early stages.

B. El-Issa was questioned regarding the riding tactics he adopted on Eureka, in particular his decision not to shift Eureka to the outside in the home straight to improve its position.

B. El-Issa explained that he had specific instructions to settle the horse at the rear of the field and attempt to save ground in the home straight and search for an inside run. He added that whilst he could not secure clear running he felt that the horse was finishing the race off fairly and would not have finished off any better wider on the track.

Trainer R. Heathcote confirmed the instructions.

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