Jockey Chad Schofield and trainer Annabel Neasham have bounced back from their harrowing Golden Slipper experience to celebrate a consolation win with exciting colt Libertad.
The pair went into last Saturday’s $5 million Golden Slipper with unbeaten filly Learning To Fly but she bombed the start then clipped heels just before the home turn, stumbling badly and dislodging Schofield.
Thankfully the hoop was relatively unscathed in the incident and it was a happier afternoon for jockey and trainer at the Randwick-Kensington meeting on Wednesday when they combined with another talented two-year-old in Libertad.
The Russian Revolution juvenile made a winning start to his career in the Yes Yes Yes First Yearlings Handicap (1100m), albeit a belated one after he was scratched at the barriers earlier this month.
“The original plan was to come here a couple of weeks ago then if he’d got the job done there, look at the Kindergarten (Stakes),” Neasham said.
“I think that’s going to come around quite quickly so we’ll just see how he pulls up but he’s a beautiful colt and I think you could probably point him anywhere.”
Neasham made special mention of her sales and marketing manager Alix Turpin for the acquisition of Libertad, who Turpin picked out at the Breeze-up Sales.
While the horse wasn’t an expected addition to the team, Neasham said he was already proving to be a handy one.
“I wasn’t very happy because she didn’t tell me about it but I said, ‘he will probably be a good horse now that I’ve told you off for it’, so plenty of credit to her for picking him out,” Neasham said.
Libertad ($4.20 equal unibet fav) scored by two lengths over The King ($7) with Capital Heart ($7) another long neck away third.
The Gary Portelli-trained Kimochi ($8) was an impressive winner of the juvenile fillies’ race, trailing a hot speed and quickly putting her rivals to the sword in the straight to beat the Neasham-trained Kristilli ($71) by 1-3/4 lengths.
The victory has all but earned Kimochi a shot at the Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes (1200m) two weeks from Saturday after a setback prevented Portelli from readying her for the Golden Slipper.
“It’s certainly not a bad Plan B and I think she’s going to make a lovely three-year-old,” Portelli said.
“I thought she was a Slipper horse early on and unfortunately, she just had a little issue. It’s all about timing with these horses and if you miss a week, you miss everything.
“You can see how she turned out today, I’m not saying she would have won a Golden Slipper, but I reckon she would have been in it for sure. She’s a very good filly.”
Visiting English jockey Tom Marquand made a welcome appearance at Randwick after recovering earlier than expected from a shoulder injury to take two rides, both of them managing minor placings.
He has a full book of 10 mounts on Saturday, including Byron Belle for John Sargent in the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) and the Chris Waller-trained Selino in the Tancred Stakes (2400m).
