SAND NOV 13 - HAYES’S DINNER DATE COMES UP TRUMPS

By Taron Clarke | Monday, November 15, 2010

Sandown Hillside, November 13, 2010.
Track - Slow 7. Rail - True. Penetrometer: 5.48.
Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed) 2YO SW - 1000m.
Time: 59.93. 600m Sectional: 35.49. (Carrying 55kg).
1 Dinner Date; 2 Metonymy; 3 Danish Shadow.
Margins: 0.8L x 0.1L.

The David Hayes trained Dinner Date became the up and coming young sire Mossman’s latest Black Type winner by chalking up a narrow victory in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes for two-year-olds over 1000 metres in the opening event at Sandown on Saturday.

Hayes added the winkers to Dinner Date’s racing gear and it may have proven the difference with the young filly scoring a grinding type of victory over her rivals.

The filly was making her second racetrack appearance after finishing an unlucky third to Spectrolite in a Listed two-year-old event down the Flemington straight on Melbourne Cup Day.

The win capped a memorable twenty four hour period for Hayes, as he trained a winning treble at Moonee Valley on Friday night.

Ridden by the underrated Brad Rawiller, Dinner Date scored a three quarter of a length victory over Metonymy with a half-head back to Danish Shadow.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer David Hayes: “Mosse, who rode her last start, felt if it wasn’t so tight she would have gone close the other day.

"She made the natural improvement and she is now a Stakes winner, so it’s terrific.

“I was looking at the winkers last week and it cost her the race.

I think if we put her away and bring her back for a Blue Diamond Prelude she will be pretty competitive.

“There’s been very few two-year-old races in Melbourne up to this stage, so there hasn’t been too many of my two-year-olds tried yet.

“I haven’t really got a pecking order and I don’t think I’ll have one until February, I don’t think.

“She has got natural talent. I would say she will make a better seven furlong … to a miler.

“She’s very competitive and does everything right so she’ll win more than she loses as a two year old.”

Jockey Brad Rawiller: “It was a great run down the straight and her work since has been good.

“The experience helps. It just shows out of the gates. She jumped away great and landed in a good spot and she was able to put the pressure on when it counted. We were too good.

“On this sort of ground … it is a long way home. It is a fine line between going for home and making sure you still have something left on the line.

“The track is a genuine slow and probably if we happen to get another good shower it won’t be far away from going to heavy.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Dinner Date): 5.00 out to 5.50 into 5.00.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
The explanations tendered by N Hall (Cash For Matt) and B Melham (De Lilly Lightful) failing to be on course 45 minutes prior to their race rides were accepted.

The start of this race was delayed when Son Of Caesar shifted its off-fore plate and subsequently had to be re-plated.

Cash For Matt knuckled badly on jumping away and then made contact with the hindquarters of Dinner Date which shifted in.

After passing the 800m Beseech and Son Of Caesar raced greenly and came together on two occasions prior to the 600m.

Metonymy was inclined to lay in under pressure in the straight.

Son Of Caesar was inclined to lay in in the straight.

Instinction raced greenly in the straight and hung out over the final 100m and in doing so shifted out and inconvenienced Predator.

A post race veterinary examination of Son Of Caesar was carried out after it performed below market expectations and this revealed no abnormalities.

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