Citi’s a winner in town
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Mandy Radecker and Heart of the Citi return to scale after another triumphant win (Noel Pascoe photo)
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In the colours of the Pat Duff stables, Heart of the Citi has again proved his potential after cinching the Carlton Mid QTIS 3YO Handicap 1200m at City Pacific Doomben on Saturday, February 2.
Ridden by apprentice Mandy Radecker the grey gelding got a good start on the inside barrier and was the first to get going. They dropped back and were locked away until finding clearance by moving outside at the 300m. Heart of the Citi (G3 Show a Heart-Citichy) went after the leader One Eyed (Ken Pope) and got past him at the 100m to finish ahead of him by half a length.
Pride of Power (Brad Pengelly) was third behind by three and a quarter lengths.
Trainer Pat Duff described the race, “He’d come off a 1400m race start before and backed up Saturday to Saturday. I suppose you could say the way the race was run, he was able to just jump into the box seat and aided by a nice ride he was able to just bide him time and really it was a pretty simple win.”
“Dropping back in distance obviously the tempo of the race is usually quicker and therefore you can actually give them a sit on. You know I always think usually they’ll come out a bit faster. We were happy to take a sit on him,” Pat said adding that he told Radecker to ride it as the race was run and “that’s the way it was run”.
Heart of the Citi went in as $3 race-favourite and didn’t disappoint Duff. “He looked the obvious, didn’t he? Following his good run the week before and his win prior to that. He sort of went into that race and I felt that he was deserving of his price.”
From his seven starts with three wins and three placings the Show a Heart gelding has amassed $130,000 in prizemoney to date including $49,900 in QTIS bonuses.
“He’ll just have a little freshen up now and I’ll set out his, obviously his target is the Magic Million 3YO Classic 1400m. He’ll probably have a lead up run or two into that.
“I’ll just decide how long I have after his little break to come back at them. He’ll certainly have an easy week or 10 days in the stable and then we’ll probably look at a race in around three weeks time and then move towards on the 3YO Classic,” said Duff.
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Hollie Roberts – January 4
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