Australian and New Zealand rivalry on par
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Jockeys Carl Spry and Tony Pattillo after their dead heat win
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Both sides of the Tasman Sea were to share the honours when the Australian mare Calchris and New Zealand mare Jazella dead heated in the Listed Attwood Marshall Lawyers Silk Stocking 1200m at the Gold Coast on Saturday, May 3.
The photo finish couldn’t separate the pair, both at $15 odds. They both ran very different races.
Heading out from barrier four, Jazella (M4 Black Minnaloushe USA-Jazzmatazz NZ) got away to the front of the pack and travelled second behind race leader Strange Lady (Chris Whiteley).
On the other side was Calchris (M4 Commands-Miss Chakra) who jumped from barrier 12 and got across to the inside towards the back of the field.
In the straight, Jazella (Carl Spry) got to the front while Calchris (Tony Pattillo) burst through the gap and gave charge.
They finished together ahead of third placegetter Strange Lady by a half neck.
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Jazella and Calchris return to scale joint winners (Noel Pascoe photos)
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Heading into the race, Jazella had two Group 3’s up her sleeve, but this is her first Australian win after only finding second place in last year’s Queensland Winter Racing Carnival.
“The whole point of us being over there is to get an Australian Black Type because in a catalogue that to me is the most important thing to have behind them. Now that she’s actually achieved a win, admittedly only a Listed race, but hopefully there’s more in store. She’s a lot stronger than she was last year over there. I think if the tracks stay on our side and we get some decent draws, she could still feature in some further races to come,” said Ruakaka trainer Donna Logan.
Logan felt confident heading into the race. “On her run in Sydney her last start she was three wide facing the breeze the whole way over 1200m and finished close up so I was confident she would go a fairly good race if she had a draw, which she did have,” she said.
“She’s come up from Sydney because the tracks are too wet for us down there so she’d had a big trip up on the Monday, arriving in Brisbane from Sydney direct so it was quite a good effort to bounce back as she did. It was a nice ride and a nice dead heat win.”
But neither winners’ trainer were confident they’d scored the win. “When I watched it on telly back here (New Zealand), initially I thought she might have just held on but when we saw the photo finish I did have to sit down because I thought we’d been beaten,” said Logan.
For Calchris’ Gold Coast trainer Bruce Hill it was the same story, “I’d actually thought she’d got beaten myself. I’m glad to take half, it’s better than second,” he said.
“She had a good run. I told Tony to sort of try and get in somewhere, give her a chance and she hit the line pretty good.”
“Everything went right for her.”
Hill describes the mare as very honest, only being out of the prizemoney three times from her 18 starts including six wins for Casino, NSW owners Thomas and Cathryn Amey. “(She) Tries 110 per cent every time she goes round.”
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Hollie Roberts – May 6 |
