Go Wandji off to the paddock after shock defeat

Trainer Tom Dougall has confirmed that his stable star Go Wandji, who suffered a rare defeat at Doomben on Saturday, will now head to the paddock where he will be given a long spell.

“He’ll have a nice spell now,” said Dougall. ‘He will miss the summer … we are not going to give him a short spell and get him back for the summer. We are not going to rush him back for that. He’ll have a really good spell now.”

Saturday’s defeat of Go Wandji as a $1.35 favourite raised eyebrows but, when putting the result in proper perspective, the outcome was not the ‘disaster’ of a run that those with exaggerated pre-race expectations tried to ramp up after Tumbler Ridge had beaten Go Wandji to the line.

“I told everyone that wanted to listen that he’s been in work a very long time, but not everybody wanted to listen” explained Dougall. “Everyone thought, because he had that big gap between runs, that he was first-up, but he was always in work.

“He had a full month’s re-education at the barriers and then we struck the wet weather and so there were nine weeks between runs … but he was in work the whole time and he has done a marvellous job.” (Go Wandji will head for his ‘time out’ as a winner of eight of his twelve starts).

“He was gone before the corner,” said Dougall, looking back at the race itself. “He was struggling and was clearly a horse off his top form … and he still ran second,”

And it is worth noting that the horse Go Wandji ran second to, Tumbler Ridge, is certainly no slouch.

Himself a six-time winner, Tumbler Ridge won the Gold Jewel, finished second in the Tatts Recognition and finished fourth in both the Dalrello and the Queensland Guineas … so there was certainly no shame in going down to the Steven O’Dea / Matt Hoysted trained runner.

And the man who had the best view of Go Wandji’s run has a very definite view of Go Wandji’s race on Saturday.

Jockey Larry Cassidy comprehensively shot down any argument that the slow tempo of the race and the positioning of Go Wandji in the running in the seven-horse field contributed in any way to the defeat of the Tom Dougal trained runner.

Cassidy was adamant that Go Wandji had simply had enough.

“If anybody else wants to talk about to me being three wide … well, I couldn’t have been happier where I was,” said Cassidy after the race.

“I had no concern at all being three wide, because it was a slowly run race and he had 54kg. It was not a concern and that is not why he got beat,” stated Cassidy emphatically.

“My only other option was to go back to last … and that was not an option with the speed they were going. That would have given him no chance.

“The circumstances in terms of how the race panned out really didn’t matter I would have been dirty on myself if I had gone back to last, because that would have been the wrong decision.

“If anyone blames three wide, they don’t know the horse.

“He just has had enough. I knew, probably as early as the 700m where he was changing his legs a lot … it just wasn’t him. He wasn’t the same horse.

“There was nothing there when I asked him to go, which is not like him. He never let down at all.

“I certainly haven’t lost faith in Go Wandji. I know how good he is. I think they have had him in the stable for about twelve months now, but now it is time for the horse to go to the paddock.

“Top (Dougall) said a long time ago that the horse would tell us when he has had enough … and today he told us … he said … I‘m done.”