With the Magic Millions debacle on the Gold Coast, Rosehill’s slack Saturday last week exceeded expectations and, hopefully, today’s Royal Randwick program, with a suspect Carrington Stakes, can produce a similar outcome.
And what a seven days it’s been: jockey Tom Berry – billed as a poster boy – outed for over a year mainly due to being the beneficiary of a sling; and the strong suggestion that arguably Australia’s best race, the Cox Plate, will get a date change to November.
Dylan Gibbons keeps a cool head to get Miriamia home by the barest margin at Rosehill.Credit:Getty
Berry is riding on a stay of execution pending an appeal hearing. If a jockey pulls a horse up, particularly if I have backed it, tar and feathering is too good for them. But a present for a good tip? It’s in racing’s DNA. Surely three months to ponder the rules is tough enough.
The Cox Plate move will be yet another example of how The Everest – a Peter V’landy’s promotion – has changed the face of Australian racing if it is to follow the Melbourne Cup as suggested. Rusted as I am to tradition, and taking into consideration the success of moving Flemington’s Mackinnon Stakes from Derby Day to the following Saturday’s Champions program, why not?
But bread and butter racing, compared to water-logged Gold Coast glitz a week ago, returns to Randwick where the feature, the Carrington, is listed in name but questionable in quality. Topweight Looks Like Elvis is an eight-year-old, which was once a good reason to exclude a horse from the main chances. Still, trainer Jarrod Austin has done a commendable job keeping this meal ticket vibrant, and Australia’s top-rated racehorse is Nature Strip, the same vintage.
However, the sprint has the Joe Pride influence so relevant at Rosehill last Saturday. While millions were sprayed on yearlings at the Gold Coast, the trainer had a double with hand-me-downs Hokkaido and Mariamia. Today he supplies the Carrington with Titanium Power and Snippy Fox, hardly world-beaters but money-spinners ready to rumble. Pride’s Lekvarte, too, is worthy of attention in the Fujitsu.
While the trainer’s expertise shone at Rosehill, so too did the saddle skill of apprentice Dylan Gibbons, who was cool under the pressure of being forced wide on Mariamia and whose two-kilo claim proved vital with his other successes, Kalino and Dalaalaat.
Amy McLucas (green cap) shows fortune favours the brave as she takes a rails run on Trooper Knuckle.Credit:Getty
Still, he didn’t get the ride of the program. That went to another apprentice. Take a bow Amy McLucas, justifiably tagged “Amy McBrave” by race caller Darren Flindell, himself an entertainer now in the style of Bert Bryant. McLucas took an opening on Trooper Knuckle that would have forced the man from Snowy River to take a hold.
The allowance plus the skill of Gibbons could again prove vital on Saturday with fringe prospects requiring plenty of assistance, particularly Kanazawa (Real Estate) against Kettle Hill. The latter has the services of James McDonald back from the Gold Coast, where the meeting a week ago was postponed after two races. How was a track that bad last Saturday so good on Thursday and producing a memorable program?
My highlight was the Magic Millions The Syndicate, starring horses with hundreds of owners where trainer Greg Hickman was responsible for a remarkable feat even though his Eleven Eleven was beaten by the front-running knack of Tim Clark on Centrefire.
Eleven Eleven had won three times previously at the Magic Millions, and to have a horse so well-tuned on basically the same day four years running was exceptional.
Like Pride and Austin, Hickman prepares his team at Warwick Farm. If the front-runners Titanium Power and Vreneli go berserk in the Carrington with Snippy Fox snapping on their heels, Looks Like Elvis could again be top of the pops.
