CAUL OCT 16 - ALOTTA SPUR CONTINUES MOODY’S WINNING RUN

By Taron Clarke | Monday, October 18, 2010

Caulfield, October 16, 2010.
Track - Heavy 10. Rail - Out 6m. Penetrometer 6.45.
D’Urban Plate 3YO Fillies Handicap - 1400m.
Time: 1-26.68. 600m Sectional: 37.65. (Carrying 54kg).
1 Alotta Spur; 2 What a Beauty; 3 Follonica.
Margins: 1.3L x 1.7L.

Peter Moody and Luke Nolen started Caulfield Cup Day were they left off after last Saturday’s Caulfield Guineas meeting treble by scoring with Alotta Spur in the opening event on the card.

A daughter of Queensland based stallion Jet Spur’s first crop, Alotta Spur was having just her fifth racetrack start.

With good consistent form behind quality gallopers Censor, Soul and Blink in recent starts, the Moody trained filly was sent out favourite in an open betting affair.

Nolen jumped the filly away and the pair quickly mustered speed to settle in fifth, five lengths off the leader who was the stablemate Volando.

The field travelled down inside the 600 metre pole and Nolen brought the favourite out three wide around the heels of Koala Bear, to set sail out after the leader.

Ridden along rounding the home turn, Alotta Spur raced up to chime in four wide around the bend.

In the early part of the straight, the stablemate Volando gave a good kick and inside the final 300 metres led the favourite by three quarters of a length.

Nolen gave the favourite a backhand at the furlong marker and the filly raced up to strike the front from Volando.

Alotta Spur drove clear of the stablemate who was battling away solidly. Out of the ruck of runners came What a Beauty for Damien Oliver and trainer Darren Weir.

Posing some sort of threat to the Alotta Spur, Oliver brought the Octagonal filly out around the heels of the favourite.

As soon as What a Beauty looked a real chance of gunning down the Alotta Spur, her run appeared to end. Oliver could extricate no more out of the filly.

Alotta Spur and Nolen went on to score an easy length and a quarter victory over What A Beauty with a further length and three-quarters back to Follonica in third.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Peter Moody: “If you take her Sandown run out of the equation when she hit her head that day, and it was my fault that she ran … I can't blame anyone else unfortunately … her form's been pretty good.

“The wet was a bit of a concernm, but she did seem to get through it pretty well. Got a little bit tired at the end, but a good effort.

“We're looking at a little Listed race on Melbourne Cup day, but we'll be realistic.

“I think she is going to make a good filly and a Stakes quality filly. I genuinely believe she's going to be better on top of the ground, but we'll take it today.

Jockey Luke Nolen: “Nice and simple. I don't have to think too hard then. I can’t bugger it up.

“I think she's just an honest thing. We are fortunate that we drew the nice alley.

“With the rail out at the Valley last time, she was probably a black booker on TVN, so I gave her a nice ride from the gate today and it all played into her hands.

“I think she would be further improved when she gets on top of the ground.

“It's (the track) pretty genuine. I think that was always going to be the case. It was wet enough riding round this morning.

“If it opens up it might be a little bit on pace when the track opens up. It's probably held up pretty good for the amount of rain we've had.

"This is third day racing on it, so Jason Kerr and his staff have done a fantastic job.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Alotta Spur): 4.00 out to 4.80.
The winner was the favourite.

Horse to follow: What A Beauty ran up to challenge the eventual winner inside the furlong but ran out of condition. Will strip fitter for the run and will be winning shortly.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Enzed Girl (NZ), which was slow to begin, bumped with Koala Bear.

Belle Chantecler (NZ) was slow to begin.

A short distance after the start, Regally Blonde shifted out and bumped What A Beauty.

Enzed Girl (NZ) over-raced in the early and middle stages. G Boss, rider of Enzed Girl (NZ), could offer no real excuses for the filly’s disappointing performance other than today’s track conditions.

A veterinary examination of Enzed Girl (NZ) revealed no abnormalities.

Passing the 200m, What A Beauty layed in under pressure, tightening the running of Sheila’s Star, which was inconvenienced.

More articles