Stakes day at Flemington may have stolen the limelight, but an interesting quirk caught my attention at the fag end of an ultimately intriguing Beaumont card.
The penultimate over the 1300m course was conducted at Benchmark 70 level; Provincial “A” grade. Gary Portelli’s mare Bel Selene brought to the contest four faultless performances since the shades were applied six months prior. Indeed, she had returned from a break with a strong sense of purpose; bravely making all first up at Beaumont before driving her arch nemesis Bonbonniere into the Gosford turf. Plainly her place was “in the vanguard” and regular rider Rachel King was determined to be there. As evidenced by the replay below, jockey King makes her intentions clear, striving for the lead in the early stages. Frenchman Johan Victoire takes up the challenge on Gary Moore’s Classic Uniform. The ensuing duel lacks subtlety, and naturally the winner is sourced elsewhere, with only Classic Uniform retaining his reputation after a bruising encounter.
The nightcap, a shorter event from the 1150m start, was an even more absorbing contest for Class 2 horses. Local, All From Scrap, had debuted provincially seven days prior, with a stirring performance to make all, over, importantly, today’s course and distance. Yet again, Gary Moore’s Winning Supreme looked the “fly in the ointment”, with sufficient early speed and purpose to keep out All From Scrap, especially with the short run before turning, and enable the promising resumer Art D’Amour to obtain the “run of the race”. Watch as the evergreen and irrepressible Robert Thompson purposefully (?) dawdles from the barrier. Victoire on Winning Supreme assumes the lead and relaxes in the absence of any outside bid. Thompson then catches the Frenchman napping, darting around the field to take it up, thereby nullifying one challenger and exposing Art D’Amour, forcing him to “face the breeze”. Alas, such brilliant strategy was all in vain as Art D’Amour announced himself as a future Sydney Saturday Metropolitan winner in the most impressive Provincial performance of the year.
My pre-race approach to the two events was as one-dimensional as Ms King’s. The “King of the Coalfields” had snapped me to attention, reminiscent of Bowman and Dye employing similar tactics down the back straight at Canterbury. Top-notch adds value!
Video footage courtesy of RacingNSW
Guni Liepins - February 26, 2020
Enjoyed the article, not so much the replays for all the usual reasons. Heard today on 4TAB that Thomas Huet is going back to France because government emigration red tape has made it to hard for him to stay. Maybe Glenn could do a Bet365 him as well. Ben Melham rode exceptionally well on the weekend, his ride on Vanbrugh deserved an A+ even though he didn’t place.