Just two weeks out from the $1m Golden Rose, find out what the jockeys made of their mounts in the Group 2 The Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens.
Tye Angland (Lean Mean Machine): “He’s definitely the best looking horse in the yard, I think he performed that way as well.
“I didn’t do any work from the gate, it really got sticky on the point of the corner, I was going that good I was nilly running up their backsides and I had get him out.
“I didn’t expect him to pick up that many lengths the way he did under just hands and heels, his trial the other day showed me he was definitely up to all these horses, he’s a serious race horse.
“Chris and the team were a probably a little bit worried they may be a bit sharp for him, but he’s performed on sticky tracks up at Doomben throughout the Winter and there was no problem today.
“He’s all muscle, great attitude, awesome racehorse.”
James McDonald (Zousain): “Really pleased with him. He was hopeless on that shifty ground. I pulled him out to the middle – it’s not the place to be today. Get him on a fair track and firm ground and it will turn the tables, won’t it?”
Jason Collett (Graff): “Great run. The draw was the difference there. He has a draw, he has a softer run but unfortunately the cards were dealt when it came out.”
Hugh Bowman (Performer): “Too wet for him.”
Christian Reith (Paquirri): “Didn’t handle the ground.”
Corey Brown (Sandbar): “He ran good. The track is really testing and he had a long time between runs but he’ll tighten up a lot from that.”
Tommy Berry (Long Leaf): “He just lost his running on the corner. I liked the way he picked up, just ran out of gas a bit late so he’s heading towards the Golden Rose nicely.”
Kerrin McEvoy (Jonker): “Good run. The blinkers switched him but he needs a dry surface.”
Brett Prebble (Legend Of Condor): “Nice horse, just really struggled in the ground. At the 600m I thought he was going to be a first five chance. I got held up and copped some backwash, then when I asked him to go he couldn’t go in that ground. But a fair run I thought.”
Luke Currie (Smart Elissim): “Just didn’t handle the track.”
Andrew Adkins (Nuclear Blitz): “Didn’t handle the track at all. Got wedged at the turn and that shattered her confidence.”