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2015's Winter Carnival wonders

Doomben hosts another weekend of racing. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Roar Guru
23rd June, 2015
3

The Queensland Winter carnival is all but over and it’s been quite a memorable one.

Given Eagle Farm was out of action for the whole period I think it was a resounding success and the timing and allocation of Saturday meetings at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba were spot on.

One of the highlights for me was the Toowoomba Saturday meeting which staged the Weetwood Handicap and Toowoomba Cup. I was there and the state of the track, the perfect weather conditions and the crowd were fantastic.

A couple of days prior in South East Queensland the weather was dire, and the rain had been very heavy on the Friday prior. Despite the meeting being in severe doubt, track and/or race records were run on the day.

Had that meeting been held in Brisbane, we may not have raced at all, so I’m still amazed at the times that were run and how well the fairly new grass surface at Clifford Park held up. A credit to all involved in the staging of that day.

Onto the stars of the show and I’m going to nominate by best horses of the carnival and take a look at some of the talking points.

Best Performance:

I’ll probably get an argument here but I’m going to nominate Najoom in the Fred Best three year old race (Group 3) on May 23. She ran faster overall time that day than Boban did in winning the Doomben 10000, and her last 600m was 1.14 seconds faster.

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Not only that, she was three wide the whole race, and up on a faster than average speed. She sprinted like a gazelle in the straight and was actually eased up before the finishing line. It is one of the best wins I have ever seen.

It’s always tough to make predictions but on this performance I think she would have won the Doomben 10000 (had she ran), Stradbroke and/or Tattersall’s Tiara. The sky is the limit!

Best Horse:
No doubt in my mind it was the four year old mare Srikandi. She won three Group races, two at Group 1 level, and one at Group 2 level. None of those wins were flukes because she did all the spade work up on the pace, and no horse was taking ground off her at the finish.

Her trainer Ciaron Maher stated she was a stronger mare at the start of the Winter, and despite a couple of hiccups along the way he was proved right, and got her to peak on three occasions. Not only the horse of the carnival, but the best performance from a trainer too.

Best Middle distance Performer:

Definitely goes to the Gai Waterhouse trained former French horse Pornichet who strolled in the Toowoomba Cup with a big weight, and the Doomben Cup at Weight For Age. His Doomben Cup performance left everybody gasping and talking of a Cox Plate start in the Spring. I think it’s realistic, and he could even win it, because our middle distance horses are so weak at the moment. Any further improvement would seem him as a Group 1 star of the Spring.

Best Three Year Old

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Goes to the Chris Waller trained filly Winx who put in two devastating performances in winning the Queensland Guineas and Queensland Oaks.

Seemingly this wasn’t a vintage three year old crop of horses, but she could only beat what she opposed and you have to take into account the fact she made one act affairs of two capacity fields. And there was 600m in distance between the two races she won. Her acceleration was blinding, and it was a pure adrenalin rush watching her gobble up her opposition from a seemingly hopeless position at the rear of the field on both occasions.

Had she run in the Queensland Derby she would almost certainly have won that too although she was wisely given a spell to prepare for the latter stages of the Melbourne Spring carnival.

Of course, Najoom could’ve challenged for this if she’d been in the field for the Tiara – more on that later.

Best Two Year Old

I should really give this to Press Statement for his win in the Group 1 JJ Atkins, but I have a soft spot for the Gold Coast filly Sagaronne. She came out of relative obscurity winning a Maiden at the Gold Coast, which was an absolutely staggering performance. It was therefore no surprise to me watch her come to Brisbane and win a listed race quite impressively.

One week later she backed up to run second to Press Statement at Group 1 level so she came an awful long way in a short time, for the somewhat unheralded Toby Edmonds Stable.

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She is beautifully bred and could be a Thousand Guineas, Wakeful Stakes, VRC Oaks filly in the Spring, if she is aimed at that carnival.

Potential Star

I’m nominating the Peter Moody trained three year old colt Ulmann. He ran a nice second to Winx in the Queensland Guineas and followed that up with a close second to Smokin’ Joey in the Eye Liner at Ipswich where he was poorly weighted. On both occasions he hit the line very hard and perhaps a race like the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes in the Spring is a realistic target. The stable has an opinion and he is a half brother to the well performed Group 3 winner Mahisara.

The Negatives

I don’t want to moan too much about a carnival that was exceedingly well organised in typically pristine Queensland Winter weather, but it has to be said: we need the best horses on offer to run in our best races.

On four or five occasions over the carnival that was either placed in jeopardy, or didn’t eventuate.

Luckily Leebaz got a run off emergency status to win the Hollindale Stakes at the Gold Coast.

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Unfortunately Pornichet did not, which ironically ended up being Toowoomba’s gain.

Nevertheless you would have to say that the French horse would have obliterated that Hollindale field given what he did at his next two starts.

Najoom looked very likely to miss the Stradbroke Handicap despite her stellar win in the Fred Best. As it turned out she injured herself during that race or in trackwork thereafter, and had to settle on a run in the Tattersall’s Tiara instead.

Lumosty loomed as the likely favourite for the Stradbroke Handicap, in her absence, off two ultra impressive wins against older horses in Melbourne. Yet she failed to make the field either.

Only luck was to intervene at the eleventh hour with her fellow Victorian Lord Of The Sky scratched out of the race. That propmoted her from first emergency to gain a start. She didn’t win, but at least the punting public weren’t denied an opportunity to invest on a quality in form horse who deserved to be there.

Onto the Tatt’s Tiara, and Najoom failed to gain a start once more. This was her grand final and she was nominal favourite for the race, yet couldn’t achieve more than second emergency status.

There was one scratching on race morning, but that wasn’t enough to see her get a berth. But worse was to come even later in the day with the scratching of New Zealand mare Diademe, because the stewards apparently couldn’t be satisfied she hadn’t been ‘treated’ on race day.

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Ironically then Najoom would have got a run had Diademe been taken out of the race a lot earlier. It’s hard to take anything away from the win of Srikandi but what might have been between these two super female equine athletes on the day?

It would most probably have been the race of the carnival. It’s probably quite fortunate that Srikandi was so dominant on the day, and highly favoured to win the race, because little attention has been paid to the glaring omission of Najoom since.

Surely prizemoney won over the past three to six months needs more emphasis in balloting conditions for our big races?

Old form is just that, and it does nothing for the sport when out of form horses do turn up and win our best races.

Fortunately that wasn’t the case this Winter.

The staying problem in Australian racing
The only other negative I can find is not with this carnival itself, but more the state of despair again to be found in our staying ranks.

Arguably the two best long distance staying races over the carnival were the Listed Caloundra Cup (2400m), and Group 2 Brisbane Cup (2200m) were won by Index Linked, ostensibly a 2000m horse, and Jetset Lad, a very ordinary conveyance who hadn’t won beyond 1600m.

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The Eagle Farm Cup (run at Doomben) was won by New Zealand three year old Werther, yet he was unable to win the Queensland Derby (albeit unlucky), and The Ipswich Cup (2150m listed) was won by Danchai who hadn’t previously won in twelve Australian outings, or won any race over more than 2092m in his career.

He also stepped up in distance 550m to win that race. The Chairmans Handicap at the Gold Coast was won by a decent mare in Epingle, but she was found a little wanting in the last feature staying race, the Tatts Cup, well beaten by the enigmatic South Australian Derby winner Escado.

It’s hard to see any of the aforementioned horses having any impact on the Melbourne Spring.

All in all it was an excellent Winter Carnival, and interestingly one that was largely dominated by the fairer sex.

A number of horses will have taken benefit from the gorgeous weather they experienced here, and the form and residual fitness from the Winter often carries over to at least the early part of the Sydney and Melbourne Spring carnivals.

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