GOLD COAST – THE QUICK WRAP – FEBRUARY 17. 2024
By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 17, 2024
Who said you don’t have close finishes on the Poly Track and that favourite’s tend to dominate?
Well, at the February 17 meeting at the Gold Coast three out of the seven races provided finishes of the highest order in terms of competitiveness, where it was difficult to separate the runners as they hit the line.
One race finish was as spirited a four way go as you are likely to see with just over a quarter-of-a-length covering the first four horses across the line in a blanket finish ... while two other races came down to two horse battles decided by a proverbial whisker. Alright, one of those latter results was reversed on protest (see race 7), but, arguably, even that call by the stewards must have been a very close one indeed.
Adam Campton took out the training honours with a double after the protest hearing went his way while Jai Williams was the most successful rider on the card, saluting in two races.
Gold Coast based trainers won five of the seven races ... Campton (2), Jay Bellany, Dan Bougoure and Lee Freedman all had their moment in the sun.
Eagle Farm based Chris Anderson and Newcastle based Jason Deamer were the other trainers to take away a share of the spoils.
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The Lee Freedman stable struck early ... and in decisive fashion ... when the Nicconi gelding Singular scored an end-to-end win in a Maiden Handicap over 1540m, the first race on the card.
The three-year-old was saluting at his fourth career start having gradually been stepped up in distance with each new assignment, going from 1120m on debut to 1300m and 1400m in his next two starts in which he finished third on both occasions.
Here, with Jai Williams in the saddle for the first time, Singular, easy to back at $4.80, dictated the speed at a relatively sedate pace to suit himself up front, before settling down to business in the home straight where none of his five rivals could match his sustained run to the line.
The smart-looking black gelding Crusader Razor, a son of the mighty Lonhro, came home best of the rest without seriously threatening the winner, to finish in the placings for the first time in seven career starts.
The $1.80 favourite Bamboozled did just that to punters. He never flattered and finished a well beaten fourth.
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What a finish!
It was nail-biting stuff in the closing stages of the second race ... a BM65 Handicap over 1200m ... in which only 0.30 lengths separated the first four runners across the line.
If you were on the Dan Bougoure trained Expresso Love ($4.80) it was a thrill to watch as Michael Cahill drew on very bit of his considerable race riding experience to get Expresso Love home by the narrowest of margins from Pernell, Full Cry (both at double figure odds ... $14 and $13 respectively) and the $3.60 race favourite Ma’s Epic.
The Poly Track has played a big part in Expresso Love’s honour roll, with the six-year-old mare having won four of the five starts she has contested on this synthetic surface.
The Jay Bellamy runner-up Pernell is another example of the ‘horses for courses’ theory. In nine starts on the Poly Track Pernell has landed three wins, three second places and two third places ... having only finished out of the first three on one occasion.
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Trainer Jay Bellamy might have missed out narrowly in a photo-finish in race two, but he was bang on target in race three ... a BM55 Handicap over 1900m ... and this time, with the $2.60 second favourite Pagato streaking his rivals, Bellamy didn’t have to wait for the finish line to start celebrating his win.
This was Pagato’s first win since transferring to the Bellamy yard and, while it took a while coming, it could not have arrived in a more emphatic fashion.
Jai Willaims held Pagato in second place down the back stretch and in the first half of the sweep to the home turn, before putting his foot on the accelerator ... making an early move some 600m from home.
Not only did Pagato then dash into the lead, he continued to increase his leading margin at will ... he led by just over six lengths soon after straightening ... to leave his opposition for dead, racing home all by himself having his race won long before he reached the finish line.
This was a second winner in three races for Jai Williams who won the opener aboard Singular.
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Race four provided another rousing finish in which the Adam Campton trained Deep Blast (The second favourite at $2.50) prevailed to see off the persistent challenge of the $1.90 main fancy Waterworld to salute in a Class 4 Handicap over 1200m.
This was Deep Blast’s first win in four starts since transferring to Campton from the Hayes training partnership and he had to earn it with Emily Lang certainly playing her part in the saddle at various stages of the race ... making sure she held the inside run early ... having to measure Deep Blast’s gallop mid-race ... holding her nerve with a wall of horses behind her on the turn ... asking Deep Blast to kick on straightening ... and last, but certainly not least, coaxing the extra from Deep Blast to help the Campton trained runner hold off the strong challenge of Waterworld, who had threatened to go right past the winner.
While this was Deep Blast’s first win for Campton in his first race on the Poly Track, it was the Deep Field gelding’s fifth career win overall from twenty-four starts.
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Another runner who had previously campaigned down south before relocating to the Sunshine State took out the fifth race on the card ... a Maiden Handicap over 1050m.
The lightly raced Torre Egger kicked off his career with three starts for trainer Bjorn Baker ... after having no less than five trials over a ten-month period before he ever saw race action ... before transferring to the Chris Anderson yard for whom he was having his third start here as a $7 chance on the fourth line of betting.
The three-year-old Written By chestnut was never going to be denied here though, in spite of having to work hard early, when held four wide in a hectic chase for the lead, and then having to sustain a long run when making his forward move to get to the front and then hold his advantage to the line.
In the end, Torre Egger was good enough to do it at both ends with Michael Hellyer helping to guide him to his first career victory.
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It had taken a while for the followers of favourites to have a result come their way ... but that result arrived here with the $1.80 hot favourite Shigeru taking out the sixth race ... a Class 1 Plate over 1540m.
Some might have expected the Jason Deamer trained gelding to win by more than the official 0.50 length margin, but, in truth, it was a solid enough win after Ryan Wiggins made the running on the favourite, kicked clear in the home straight and then stayed on long enough to thwart the faster finishing Dance Babe ($7.60) by 0.50 lengths ... particularly as Shigeru was carrying 4.5kg more than the runner-up.
Shigeru was making it back-to-back wins here, having shed his Maiden ticket at Tuncurry in his previous start and he continues to be well placed by the Newcastle based Deamer, having never finished out of the first three places in all four starts this preparation.
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Nothing like a bit of controversy to end the day with the seventh race ... a BM58 Handicap over 1100m being decided in the Steward’s Room.
The Alan Chau trained My Dog Diesel, ridden by Sariah Champkin had got to the line first to beat out the Adam Campton trained Freeland by a nostril ... the third oh so close finish on the day ... but a protest was lodged by the Elione Chavez, the rider of Freeland.
There was no question that My Dog Diesel had drifted outwards halfway up the straight and taken Freeland with it ... and then there was a second movement close to the 100m mark.
The two sides to the story were that Champkin straightened her horse on both occasions. Chavez never stopped riding. The two horses never made contact, and both seemed to race on a straight course to the line over the latter stages.
In other words, from Chau's perspective, Freeland had every chance to run My Dog Diesel down.
Weighed against that was the outward movement of My Dog Diesel and the any effect it might have had on the chances of Freeland.
The Campton camp was adament Freeland's chances had been compromised.
The Stewards, after taking a fair amount of time to consider the matter, upheld the protest declaring, ‘Stewards were of the view that near the 250m, My Dog Diesel shifted out, taking Freeland off its line, before being straightened. My Dog Diesel again shifted out slightly passing the 100m, obliging Freeland to shift out slightly. As the Stewards were of the view that had the interference to Freeland not occurred, that filly would have finished ahead of My Dog Diesel at the end of the race and therefore upheld the objection.’
To say that trainer Alan Chau was flabbergasted by the decision would be an understatement.
He remained in the Steward’s room after the decision had been announced to ask how he could appeal the verdict as he felt it was wrong.
He was told there was no right of appeal and that the Steward’s decision is final.
Freeland thus became Campton’s second winner on the day.
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