Saturday, September 19, 2009

Yeehah!

Khamsin Warriors run of bad luck finally turned today with an impressive last-to-first win in the Jim McGee Memorial Cup at Kembla Grange.

After jumping awkwardly jockey Taylor Lovelock-Wiggins didn't panic. He had been instructed to settle midfield and save his run for the straight but after the poor jump and being faced with the options of either moving forward to probably race three wide for most of the trip or easing back onto the rails to settle at the rear of the field, he thankfully chose the latter. Taylor's patience at this point had a significant bearing on the result and he deserves credit for his judgement.

He then pinched a couple of places in the middle stages of the race before asking KW for his trademark burst of acceleration coming out of the turn for home. To the delight of his owners and the punters who backed him into $2.50 favouritism, KW obliged and powered home down the middle of the track to win running away by half a length.

Time for the race was a very creditable 1.23.82 with the last 600m officially in 34.36. KW's last 600 must have been much quicker than that though, as he spotted the leader many lengths at that point in the race.

Trainer Gerald Ryan was tending his charges at Rosehill, but when told the result by phone said that since he seems to like Kembla, we'll return for another bite at the cherry in a fortnight.

The manner of the win suggests that KW will handle both longer and better class races in the future.






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