Leading Western Australian owner Bob Peters was left counting the costs of the meeting at Flemington last Saturday.
Disappointing efforts by the Peters owned trio of Regal Power, Stageman and Western Empire … by their standards … promoted Peters to pull the plug on their Spring Carnival campaigns with the horses flying back home this week to take a break and recharge.
Western Empire and Regal Power were by soundly beaten in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes … albeit in a race where the finish was contested by two very smart horses in the form of I’m Thunderstruck and Alligator Blood … but coming home 6.35 and 7.85 lengths behind the winner was a disappointing result for the Group 1 Railway Stakes winner (Western Empire) and the Group 1 Kingston Town Stakes winner (Regal Power).
For his part, Stageman, who had finished in second place in the Group 3 Aurie’s Star in his first-up run a month earlier, failed to fire in the Group 2 Bobby Lewis. He did finish only 2.75 lengths behind the winner, Baller, on the day, but that still translated into an eighth place with Peters clearly expecting him to be more competitive than that.
While these three runners have had their campaigns cut short, Peters still has a finger in the Spring Carnival pie.
Inspirational Girl, who ran second to Mr Brightside in the Group 2 Feehan at Moonee Valley at the start of the month … Graceful Girl, who finished fifth in the Group 2 Bobby Lewis on Saturday … and Showmanship who won the Group 3 Show County Stakes at Randwick on August 20, will continue on with their racing schedules.
Graceful Girl will back up in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday, with Showmanship also taking up the same Group 1 challenge.
Jamie Kah will ride Graceful Girl. Damien Oliver takes the ride aboard Showmanship, who, it should be noted, has won no less than eight out of his ten starts.
All of the horses mentioned above are trained by Danny O’Brien.
