Trainer Annabel Neasham is enjoying a successful Queensland Winter Carnival.
Bois d’Argent win in the Group 1 Doomben Cup and Numerian’s win in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes are the highlights so far … with the promise of more to come … but it has not only been on the big feature race days that Neasham is producing the goods.
At the midweek meeting at Doomben on Wednesday, the Neasham stable sent out three runners and went home with three winners, including a very interesting runner in the form of the French import Extraordinaire who was having her third start in Australia.
While the three-year-old filly did not show too much in her first two starts since changing countries, the fact that the lightly raced daughter of Intello did race in Group 1 company at Longchamp in the Crit De Pouliches over 1600m (with Frankie Dettori in the saddle), and in the Group 3 PR D Reservoirs at Deauville over 1600m, suggested that she had more to offer than her first two results in Australia showed … and that certainly proved to be the case when she stepped out at Doomben in a BM68 Handicap over 1640m.
Ryan Maloney was patience personified in the early stages, settling Extraordinaire in midfield, happy to bide his time before asking his mount to make up ground in the approach to the home turn. By the point of the home turn Extraordinaire was four wide, in clear air, and now only a couple of lengths off the speed.
Maloney then allowed Extraordinaire, who had been a drifter from $7 to $9.50 in the betting, the luxury of going through her gears in her own time. She hit the front with 200m left to run and was strong to the line to easily keep all challenges at bay.
While the win was more workmanlike than spectacular in a not too difficult grade, the win was a positive in terms of showing a progression which Extraordinaire can be expected to add to when she next faces the starter.
Maybe one for the notebook.
Neasham’s other two winners on the day were the $2 favourite Bosustow, also ridden by Maloney, who shed his Maiden ticket in his fifth start … and Space Tracker, who landed his fourth career win from sixteen starts when taking out a Class 3 Handicap under Kyle Wilson-Taylor.
