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The step-up to the 1800m and the Polytrack in Sunday¡¯s
mini-feature, the $150,000 Marsiling Classic Stakes paid instant dividends
for game galloper Switchblade, but it had to take all of champion jockey
Joao Moreira¡¯s persuasion to hit the line first.
Punted down to $14 favouritism following a close battle in the
market with the likes of Arjuna and New Rose Wood right until barrier rise,
the Fusaichi Pegasus six-year-old certainly owed his head victory over
tough mare New Rose Wood to the Brazilian¡¯s strength in the saddle.
Crucible (Danny Beasley) took up the early running before
stacking up the speed down the backstraight, prompting Moreira to take the
intiative of pouring forward from second-last from the 1100m.
Switchblade (Joao Moreira) gets
the better of New Rose Wood (Soo Khoon
Beng) on the inside over th concluding stages of the Marsling
Classic Stakes.
Descending out three wide, Switchblade rolled forward to
be within five lengths of the leader, but could not quite sweep round the
field when the pace picked up at the 800m.
As Crucible upped the tempo, New Rose Wood (Soo Khoon Beng)
and El Dorado (Sean
Cormack) also followed suit, and Switchblade certainly did not look the
most dangerous then, after all of Moreira¡¯s hard toil to get him rolling
forward.
Soo, on the other hand, had barely flexed a muscle on New Rose
Wood, and looked like he still had plenty underneath him.
The big mare grabbed the lead at the 300m with dual Singapore
Gold Cup winner El Dorado in
hot pursuit, while Moreira had pulled Switchblade to the outside and
switched his whip through to his left hand.
Under Soo¡¯s urgings, New Rose Wood drew one length on
Switchblade and it looked at that moment that the 1.5kg pull between the
two would prove telling. But Moreira never gave up and threw everything at
the Arexevan Stable-owned gelding, who pinned his ears back and lunged at
the post to score by a head.
Thundering Jet (Barend Vorster) plugged on well from his
box-seat to run third but more than three lengths away. El Dorado weakened
late to finish sixth but will certainly improve from that first run under
his belt since last June.
Switchblade recorded the time of 1min 54.28secs for the 1800m
and has brought his earnings past the $370,000 mark with that fourth win
from 27 runs.
¡°Not bad for a cast-off. He used to be trained by Graeme
Rogerson in Sydney and has won just a maiden at Ballarat, I think,¡± said
trainer Steven Burridge.
¡°We got him nicely on weights (54kg) today and he also loves
the Polytrack. The rise in distance also helped him.
¡°But I have to say I was a bit worried when I saw Joao working
on him so far out and he looked a little flat-footed.
¡°As it turned out, it proved to be the correct decision, as
Joao probably didn¡¯t want to get too far behind after they bunched up early.
¡°I thought Arjuna would take him into the race, but he didn¡¯t.
Then in the home straight, when I saw New Rose Wood travelling so well, I
thought we would be in trouble.
¡°She also had only 52.5kg on her back and had not spent a
penny in the running. But Joao was too good and my horse got there on
time.¡±
Members of Arexevan Racing flank trainer Steven
Burridge (second from left)
and jockey
Joao Moreira after victory in the Marsiling Classic Stakes.
Moreira said that after riding Switchblade at his last start
(second to Alacarte over 1600m on February 20), he knew he was a lazy type
of horse who needs a bit of hustling and bustling to get going.
¡°You need to really push him hard. When I took off from the
backstraight, the pace was too slow, and I didn¡¯t want him to play catch-up.
¡°But then they started to pull away and it looked like he was
not making any ground from the 800m.
¡°I never stopped riding him as he had already gained his
momentum. I switched the whip to the left hand at the top of the straight
as I know he can lay in.
¡°He did lay in a little but I had him well-balanced in the
home straight. I knew the mare would be hard to catch, but we also had a
small weight and I never gave up on him and he never gave up either.¡±
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