SHUTTING OUT THE BOYS

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, May 14, 2024

It was a good effort shutting out the boys!

Well, that’s one perspective of the female rider’s winning clean-sweep at Rockhampton on Tuesday where Georgina Cartwright, Tahlia Fenlon and Brooke Johnson shared the success around riding two winners apiece over the six race card.

And, for the most part, they left punters reeling as well.

An all-up bet on the six winners would have returned odds of $942 439 to 1 ... in theory that is. In practise it was never seriously in play though. Who would ever be able to find a bookmaker to write a ticket at those odds?

When Brooke Johnson kicked the day off with a $1.95 winner aboard the Clinton Taylor trained favourite I’lltellyougo in the first race, there was no indication of the massacre that was to follow.

It was all good. I’lltellyougo, a two-year-old daughter of Wanted, had done what was both asked of her and expected of her, added another layer to her positive form progression when winning for the fourth time in only five starts.

But the gravy train for the followers of favourites didn’t take long to come off the rails as the results of the next two races produced a rapid-fire pummelling of punters.

The Jason Morgan trained Exeter (Cartwright) saluted as a $31 chance in the second race and the Adam Briskey trained Mont Royal (Johnson) gunned down punters in the third race at odds of $21 when winning for the first time in thirty-five starts, in the process giving Johnson her riding double.

Exeter’s previous run had been in the Quality Fitzroy contested on The Archer Day, where the seven-year-old finished 11.25 lengths behind Sir Warwick ... while Mont Royal’s previous run was an unplaced effort at Thangool. His win here, by 3.20 lengths, was the biggest winning margin on the day.

The fourth race provided a small measure of relief for punters when the John O’Sing trained 3.90 third favourite Jungle Beat (Fenlon) proved too strong for his rivals.

Those punters who found Jungle Beat did well as you had to go back all of the way to December 2021 and seventeen runs to find his last win before this latest success. He was third-up here after resuming with two unplaced runs this preparation.

But any respite for punters was short-lived.

Cartwright was next to claim a riding double when bringing home the Gary Clem trained Frosty Bear at a starting price of $16.

Coming into the race the grey had run six times over the last eight months since transferring to the Clem stable recording three wins, two seconds and one third place.

Those results seemingly indicated a solid enough consistency of performance, but as those wins came at Nanango, Bundaberg and Mount Perry ... all non-Tab meetings ... taking the next step to a Tab meeting at Rockhampton obviously has a question mark behind it ... hence the $16 price.

In the final race on the card the aptly named, Alan Jenkinson trained, The Last Saga rounded off a perfect winning day for the female riders to give Fenlon her second winner on the day.

For the second successive race the winner’s starting price was $16.

The Last Saga had won over the same track and distance (1400m) three runs back and then held his form well enough to finish fourth and third in his two subsequent starts leading into this latest win.

All in all, it was a pretty rough day for punters as emphasised by, apart from the results already mentioned above, the final ‘Get Out Stakes’ trifecta where the first three horses past the post came in at $16, $10 and $13.

Any result is a good result for somebody though, and there would have been those who left the track smiling.

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