Harry Coffey claims she was not as her best, but Precious Charm was still able to continue her fruitful summer with a feature success at Geelong on Saturday.
The Symon Wilde-trained mare turned in a gritty performance on the Good 3 track to take out a thrilling edition of the $200,000 Coastal Classic (1700m).
The victory came four weeks after she shared the spoils with Holymanz in the Werribee Cup and Coffey said the merit of win was much greater than the head winning margin.
“I don’t think she was at her best and she showed a real will to win,” Coffey said.
“She might have been feeling that firm ground on the back-up, so it took a lot of urging to get her to win, but she may have been looking after herself.
“That’s understandable, she’s done a great job, she’s been racing in true heart and this track’s starting to get firm now and I don’t know if that’s right in her wheelhouse.”
The $3.90 second favourite stretched her record to nine wins from 23 starts with the victory over Verdad ($6.50), who finished a head clear of third placegetter Reset The Jazz ($5.50).
Holymanz, the heavily-supported $2.35 favourite who was shooting for a third-straight Coastal Classic, enjoyed a good run just worse than midfield and gave his backers hope rounding the home turn but only battled the final 150m and finished fifth, beaten 2-3/4 lengths.
With Wilde en route back to Warrnambool with his earlier winner in the day, Darkbonee, racing manager Ben Casanelia was left to represent the stable post-race and he was full of praise for the six-year-old who headed to Geelong off a fifth placing in the Listed Lord Stakes.
“It has been a fantastic preparation and she has always probably had the ability but it has taken some time to get there and it has all come together for her,” Casanelia said.
“She had no weight and she was drawn well. She is in form and the negatives were probably the harder track and the back-up because you’re never quite sure how mares will back up.
“She put it together and Harry rode her an absolute treat.”
Wilde was not the only member of the Precious Charm team who brought up a double with the Coastal Classic win with Coffey making it back-to-back wins after claiming the previous race aboard Sweethearted for Phillip Stokes.
