DOOM JULY 31 - ALBERTON PARK'S SOLID FIRST-UP WIN

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Doomben, July 31, 2010.
Track - Slow 6. Rail - out 2.5m. Pentrometer 5.6.
Class 6 Handicap - 1010m.
Time: 58.62. (Carrying 53kg).
1 Alberton Park; 2 Dr Barnard; 3 Reizarb.

The Liam Birchley trained Alberton Park produced a solid first-up performance to claim the third win of her career.

The chestnut daughter of Thorn Park shrugged off the disappointment of having finished second in three successive starts at the end of her last preparation to claim victory here. Those runner-up finishes indicated a fair amount of potential and, with this first-up run behind her, further improvement should be forthcoming.

Jockey Kelvin Wharton elected not to join a lively speed battle for the lead early. Instead he gave Alberton Park the run of the race, settling in fifth spot just three lengths off the leading pair of His Boy Elroy and Jad, who were going hard.

His Boy Elroy and Jad cornered together in the lead. Alberton Park was still fifth on straightening and appeared full of running. She did have a problem to overcome though as her way forward was blocked by Spanish Fling and she had Centennial Son racing tight to her outside, giving her little galloping room and no way out into clear air.

Wharton did have a brief look at trying to muscle Cennennial Son out of the way but, after the two runners touched momentarily, Wharton thought better of that option and went back to the inside.

That proved to be a winning move.

Once able to let down without hindrance, Alberton Park proceeded to make rapid progress. She was up to third by the 200m mark by which stage it became apparent that she clearly had the momentum to reel in Jad and His Boy Elroy who were still fighting on gamely at the head of affairs.

Alberton Park took the measure of the early leaders with 100m left to run, but her race was still far from won. Dr Barnard had made up good ground mid-straight and he was now all but matching Alberton Park’s finishing effort out wide on the track.

Dr Barnard kept Alberton Park honest all the way to the line, but Wharton was able to extract the required from the winner to keep Dr Barnard’s challenge at bay. At the line there was still a half-length between them.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Jockey Kelvin Wharton: “She does feel nice and strong underneath you. They did say she has built up a little bit from her last prep.

“Liam (Birchley) has got really good wraps on her. He is thinking of taking her to Melbourne so if she is good enough to do that she had to take care of them today.

“It certainly makes you very confident when you are going around, knowing he is thinking of taking her to Melbourne. He is a very good judge.

“She had a beautiful run in transit. Just a lovely horse to ride. She is just so tracktable. They said she was a push-button ride.

“We were just held up slightly at the top of the straight. She wanted to bullock the one outside us out of the road. She is not the biggest mare. I didn’t want to do too much bullocking and get her off balance, so I went back to the inside. She let down really nice after that.

“She is a really nice filly on the way up. She is just going to keep improving.”

“The grass coverage is very long out there, so they won’t break into it for a few races at least. She is such stepper though, she feels safe as anything going over that. The track is probably a five with a chance of improvement. Like I say, there is good grass coverage so they are not going to break into it too much.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Alberton Park): 3.60 in to 3.50 out to 3.70.
The winner was the favourite.

Allervite (G. Colless) was slow to begin. Alberton Park (K.Wharton) jumped away awkwardly. Eclair Magique (App M. Hellyer) faltered shortly after the start.

L. Cassidy the rider of Reizarb was reprimanded for permitting his mount to shift in leaving the 900m when not sufficiently clear of Eclair Magique, resulting in that horse being tightened between Reizarb and Allervite and having to be steadied. App M. Hellyer (Eclair Magique) was cautioned regarding the standard of evidence he provided in this inquiry.

His Boy Elroy (B. El-Issa) raced wide in the early stages of the event.

Rounding the home turn Alberton Park shifted out in an endeavour to obtain clear running and in doing so made contact with Centennial Son (M. Cahill). Alberton Park was disappointed for that run and was obliged to alter course to the inside of Spanish Fling (M. Radecker) in order to obtain clear running.

Centennial Son (M. Cahill) and Reizarb raced wide throughout the event.

The track was upgraded to a Dead 5 after the running of this event.

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