Tycoon Evie ($2.10), who was bidding for four wins in a row, dominated the market in the Listed Princess Stakes over 1630m at Doomben but, in the end, she had to settle for second best behind the Chris Waller trained Easifar ($11) who took the favourite’s measure close to the line to win by half-a-length.
Mark Du Plessis rode Tycoon Evie according to her rating … that is like she was the best horse in the race. Du Plessis took the Rex Lipp trained runner to the lead, chasing across from an outside draw in a fairly pressurised start, and then proceeded to try and dictate the course of events from the front.
That tactic looked to be playing out well as Tycoon Evie dropped all of her rivals … bar one … on straightening but, unfortunately for the followers of the favourite, that one would be enough to derail the best laid plans and bring Tycoon Evie’s winning sequence to an end.
The horse in question was the New Zealand bred, Chris Waller trained Easifar.
Easifar’s race almost didn’t get beyond the first couple of strides as she knuckled badly leaving the gates but, thankfully, recovered quickly enough to be able to get on with it and still take full advantage of her number one barrier draw.
The difference in the draw between Tycoon Evie (out wide) and Easifar (in pole position) and the respective effort each had to make to get up on the pace was to have a telling effect in the closing stages.
Sitting fourth at a comfortable gallop in the sweep to the turn, Easifar cut the corner to emerge in second spot as Tycoon Evie brought the field into the home straight.
From there the chase was on in what had become a two-horse race.
Tycoon Evie was as game as expected and Easifar took the whole length of the straight to run her down but, when it mattered most, it was Easifar who found the extra required to land an upset win under a superb ride by Luke Dittman.
This was Easifar’s first run in Queensland and, on the basis of this performance, she is unlikely to start at double figure odds next time out, while Tycoon Evie did everything but win and she will have lost no followers in claiming what was still a highly creditable runner-up finish.
