October 28, 2016
The Age newspaper has suggested that Olympic athlete Usain Bolt was paid $500,000 to attend Thursday’s Oaks meeting in Melbourne.
For a $10 admission (or $5 concession), he would have spotted a “sure thing” at Kumbia on Tuesday.
Jamaica’s Olympic icon would certainly have supported The Equine Bolt in the Joyce and Boy Reed Memorial Plate (1000m) and relished the post-race photo opportunities.
It turned out to be the lightly-raced four year-old’s first gold medal.
The chestnut by Any Given Saturday has always shown ability, but a variety of issues have frustrated trainer James Curtain and the ownership led by the gelding’s breeder Martin Pearce, a Victorian banker who is principal of Elizabeth Park Lodge at Beveridge near Melbourne.
After being slowly away, The Equine Bolt strode up to be in a challenging position in the middle stages.
Lee Attard had him in the vanguard on the turn, and he fought on stoutly when threatened by Tom Moloney’s Churchill Dawn.
A head separated the co-favourites on the wire.
The powerfully built veteran of just nine outings has been slow to mature.
His patient connections will be encouraged by the fact that the ice has been broken and the penny may have dropped with the descendant of Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Sir Ivor and Tim Tam, the 1958 Kentucky Derby hero that had a biscuit named after him.
* * *
An Absorbing Huston Motors Kumbia Cup
Although three withdrawals left a quartet to seek the prizes in the feature event, the contest was chockfull of interest with the pack racing fairly tightly for much of the trip.
The short priced favourite Charge Missile (Louise Dillon) proved a half-length too strong for Sun Will Shine (Nathan Evans) after a sterling battle in the straight.
The Charge Forward six-year-old was an expensive yearling that kicked off with two from two at Canterbury.
After eight further winless appearances in New South Wales, the brown gelding entered Brenton Andrews’ Gatton yard in the autumn of 2015.
The ensuing six victories included a tidy last start effort in higher grade at Eagle Farm, and a three kilogram allowance made the sprinter an attractive betting proposition in the small field.
Dillon, an apprentice with John Holcombe at Caloundra, chalked up her first south-east corner victory after a north-western stint that yielded four Cloncurry winners and three at Mount Isa.
Meanwhile, Jandowae owner-trainer Geoffrey Schrader landed a double with Leeanne McCoy booting home Cash’s Reject ($3.20) in the South Burnett Regional Council-Rohan Voller’s Dental Studio-BGA Agriservices-Radio Hot FM 89.1 Class B (900m) and Chilldown ($11) in the Jim Lenihan Memorial BM 60 (1000m).
McCoy is in the zone with three successes coming from her last five assignments.
On Derby Day, she prevailed on Singaraja, her sole opportunity at Dalby.
Punters were on the mark with Oakey trainer Patrick Sexton and Sunshine Coast jockey Gary Geran combining to take out the Rob Stewart Memorial QTIS Class 1 (1200m) with Kavalong ($2.20).
The Falvelon gelding picked up $8050 because it was QTIS eligible.
* * *
Anderson Continues His Blitz
In just over a fortnight each member of Lindsay Anderson’s three horse string has started twice, and a mere two noses have deprived the side of a six from six haul.
On Caulfield Cup day, Chien Wecko and Liverpool Jane saluted at Wondai while Glenthorn Avenue failed by the shortest possible margin to round out the treble for the stable.
Last Tuesday at Bundaberg, Liverpool Jane and Glenthorn Avenue prevailed with Chien Wecko missing narrowly.
Jason Hoopert was aboard on each of the half dozen occasions.
The Hivesville trainer’s two meeting strike rate is arguably the best in the nation at this time.
While some stables may turn out four winners and two runners-up from six chances, none of them would have only a trio in work.
* * *
Whip Changes In The Wind
A swag of riders, including the hoops that filled the Melbourne Cup quinella, have been reprimanded rather than fined under the provisions of AR137A(5)(a)(ii) during the Flemington carnival.
The infringements were for exceeding the “maximum five strikes before the 100 metre” rule.
The new approach is more discretionary and less numerical. Stewards took into consideration the amount of whip use in the unlimited, final 100 metres.
In short, if it was not excessive, the care was rated as a counter to the earlier over-use.
The notion that a jockey could be fined for hitting their mount, say, eight times before the 100 metres and not at all thereafter has always been nonsense.
A sense of balance is certainly required, particularly with stayers that may need an earlier wake up than 800 metre dashers.
It will be interesting to see how stipes in other jurisdictions react to the Victorian interpretation.
* * *
Food For Thought
Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup attendance figure of 97,479 is the lowest since the 2004 tally of 98,181.
The 2015 (101,105) and 2014 (100,794) totals are also smaller than all the others since 2004 when Makybe Diva won in wet, wild and windy conditions.
