A meeting in Sydney seldom passes by these days without trainer Mark Newnham having a winner and this Saturday’s stable winner arrived in the Group 2 Light Fingers Stakes when Every Rose toughed it out to score by just under a quarter-of-a-length from the fast-finishing $16 outsider Never Talk.
The $2.60 favourite (Ladbrokes) Away Game was there to win it if good enough, but, in the end, she had to settle for third place.
“It was heart in the mouth stuff,” said Newnham. “I was very confident at the corner and it was just a matter of whether her condition would hold up in the conditions today.
“Josh (Parr) and I have been very confident with her. On her trial at Warwick Farm the other day … and her work on Monday …we were both confident.
“Josh cam back on Monday with the biggest smile on his face like he had already won the race.
“Generally, when he is like that you know you are going to be hard to beat. When we had today’s conditions and the outside draw, it just sort of dampened the confidence a bit, but horse and jockey were good enough … a good job by all.
“I’d say we are probably headed for the Surround Stakes now.
“She’ll probably have to learn to conserve more energy, but 1400m at Randwick is a good, on-pace race for these type of fillies, so it would be nice if we could pull off another one with her.”
