Horse Racing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – 9/7/2022

Taksu continued his winning ways, a boom horse and his balloon were popped at Caulfield while at Doomben, a couple of maligned gallopers from Toowoomba got Stakes wins. All that and more in this weeks edition of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.

KEY NEWS:

Taksu Wins Winter Stakes

#WinnersWin as they say, and Taksu is indeed that, leading throughout to win the Winter Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday. The win had merit on a couple of fronts. Firstly, he led throughout and fought them off late and second, he defied a rather significant betting drift, getting out to $5+ after being as short as $2.60.

Inundation Flops At Caulfield

Two weeks ago, Inundation looked a Stakes horse of the future. Fast forward to Saturday at Caulfield and he looked the polar opposite, going down as a $1.50 favourite over 1100m, beaten over six lengths. Whether it was the wet ground, extra 100m, not sure, but he was terrible and he was the main talking point on the Caulfield program, with the feature race, the Sir John Monash, won by Mileva.

Toowoomba Pair Break Drought

A couple of maligned gallopers broke a long run of outs at Doomben on Saturday, both hailing from Toowoomba for the Lipp/Hahn camp. Firstly, Simply Fly won the Chief De Beers, his first victory since March last year. A race later, Tycoon Evie knuckled down strongly to win the Pam O’Neill, with that win being her first since November and a much deserved Stakes win.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

Giving the nod to Jason Collett. It’s a pretty impressive feat to ride five winners at any meeting, but five winners on the bounce, not all favourites, was a great display at Goulburn on Friday. The track was very testing but it showed again that he is one of the best in the business when it comes to riding on wet ground.

DEBUT OF THE WEEK:

Vientiane didn’t beat much at Canterbury on Thursday but there was a bit of class/quality about the way she put them away on what was a very testing track. The time stacked up well for the meeting, she’s bred to be a good one…will be interesting to see what level she can reach.

RIDE OF THE WEEK:

Love initiative and Lachlan Neindorf showed it to win aboard En Francais at Gawler on Saturday. This mare can get back in the run and spot those in front too much head start but he pinged the mare from the lids, found the front and once she got the lead and control, it was a case of how far. Smart ride on a promising mare and good to see Neindorf back riding winners regularly. He tested the waters in Victoria and it didn’t work out. Back in SA, he’ll climb up the riding ranks before too long.

SLAUGHTER OF THE WEEK:

It was an awful ride from Blaike McDougall aboard Sigh at Caulfield. He was on the favourite and rode for luck where he could have easily got onto the back of Cloudy, get three wide cover, a drag into the race…but he stayed inside between runners, hoping for luck…didn’t eventuate and it was an ugly watch. Should have won IMO and the ride was costly.

HORSES TO FOLLOW:

Waihaha Falls – He’s good. How good? Time will tell
Sigh – Should have won. No luck

ONE MORE CHANCE:

Strawberry Rock – I think he has something. Just wants firm ground
Inundation – He’s better than that

NEVER EVER AGAIN:

And We Danced – Like a wave on the ocean romanced? No longer
Tympanist – End of prep run, but he’s well exposed. And I don’t think he’s much good
Oxley Road – Only going to get harder from there