Jason Coyle came close to scratching Catch The Glory from The Warra several times, but his decision to roll the dice has paid the ultimate dividend with the progressive mare landing a valuable stakes success.
Next weekend’s Starlight Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill was originally the favoured option for Catch The Glory, but when The Warra (1000m) field came up lighter than anticipated Coyle began to seriously entertain running.
His main concern was a forecast for rain and when that was borne out, he again toyed with waiting another week – until favourite Zealously was a late scratching due to the deteriorating surface.
“I thought I’d have a look at the track when I got here (to Kembla Grange), and then I looked at my phone and Peter (Snowden) had already scratched (Zealously),” Coyle said.
“He beat me to it, and lucky he did.
“I know she tries hard and even if she didn’t let down as good as she possibly could, I knew she’d still run a race.”
With Jason Collett able to navigate a path towards the better going to the outside, Catch The Glory ($4.60) produced a late burst to run down The Black Cloud ($4 fav) in the final strides.
Sunrise ($4.20) gave the locals something to cheer, leading and sticking on gamely to hold down third.
Coyle said The Warra would be Catch The Glory’s only start this time in as she’d had a short turnaround from her most recent campaign and he was keen to prepare her for the autumn.
“That will be her done for this preparation,” he said.
“We’ll tip her out, give her another nice break and hopefully in the autumn, I feel like she has got another level to give.
“Her rating will go up. She is a stakes winner now. She came in for one of the two races, and we’ve knocked that off.”
Coyle is a two-time Group 1 winning trainer, capturing the 2009 Champagne Stakes at Randwick with Onemorenomore and T J Smith at Eagle Farm with Linky Dink while working for Patinack Farm.
