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Trainer
Steven Burridge admitted to having his heart in his mouth on the hometurn
of the $65,000 Graduation Stakes over 1600m on the Polytrack on Sunday.
Burridge
saddled the odds-on $5.30 favourite One More Minute and he thought the
gelding was in some trouble turning for home.
But jockey
Joao Moreira, who notched a winning double, got to work on the gelding and
at the finish it was easy work for the lightly-raced son of Iglesia scoring
by three-and-three-quarter lengths over Park Avenue (Barend Vorster) with
Iluminado (Olivier Placais) a length-and-a-half away third.
One More Minute (Joao Moreira)
scores at his first attempt over Polytrack.
¡°He was very short in the betting and I must admit I had
my heart in my mouth a couple of times during the race,¡±
said Burridge.
¡°He missed the start a bit and then he was under
pressure on the turn, but he responded really well.
¡°It was his first time on the Polytrack today so you
just never know how they will handle it under race conditions, but I do
think he¡¯s a much better horse on the grass.
¡°Still you can only do what you can do.¡±
Burridge believes the gelding
can develop into a nice stayer of the future as he was giving away
experience to his rivals.
¡°He¡¯s so relaxed that he gives
the impression he will develop into a nice stayer,¡±
said Burridge.
¡°That¡¯s why he just fell out of
the barriers. There was a bit of a delay with the scratching and he just
switched off.
¡°Because he¡¯s so relaxed he
should have no trouble getting over a longer trip.
¡°He¡¯s gone through his classes
well so far and we¡¯ll have to step him up now.
¡°It¡¯s nice to get a nice stayer
in the making as it is pretty hard to find the right horse.¡±
After being slow to jump,
Moreira allowed One More Minute time to find his legs and with the slow
early pace was allowed to settle in third position behind No Respite (John
Powell) and Park Avenue.
As the tempo increased coming
to the turn, Moreira switched One More Minute to the outside of the two
leaders where he quickly set sail after them.
With 200m to run One More
Minute eventually got the upper-hand, drawing clear for a comfortable win.
By Iglesia from the Semipalatinsk mare
Just A Trick, One More Minute has now won three of his four starts with a
further second placings and Sunday¡¯s victory saw
his prizemoney soar past the $100,000 mark for the Hippocrates Stable.
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