30 April 2018 | Terry Neil
THIS year’s Gold Crown was finally done and dusted with the running of the Graeme Board & Co Sales Graduate 2YO Final at last Friday’s Bathurst Gold Crown Paceway.
Shoobee Doo didn’t disappoint punters who made him a raging $1.20 favourite by demolishing his rivals, working to the ‘death seat’ at the bell and taking charge down the back before putting an ever-increasing gap on the field, to score by 28 metres.
Racecaller Anthony Manton’s description – “They’re in one race and he’s in a different postcode!” – was colourful but not far off the mark.
After a solid opening half in 58.8 seconds, trainer-driver Amanda Turnbull settled the issue with a 27.6s third quarter, and then cruised home in 29.9s to complete the 1:55.9 outing.
Double Bliss, for Leigh Sutton, did best of the rest, with Bernie Hewitt’s Taylors Mill completing the placings, and earning a $5,000 bonus for her connections for being the first filly home .
The winner was purchased for $16,500 at last year’s Gold Crown Sale, and has had big wraps on him since he first trialled. He ran fourth in his Gold Crown heat after missing away, and second in the Gold Consolation, before an easy win in the prelude to this final several weeks ago.
Amanda will likely aim him at the upcoming Breeders Challenge series, where he will be highly competitive, especially on the wide open stretches of Menangle.
She concedes that he is badly in need of “that” operation to mend his wayward behaviour, but is reluctant to do it “because he’s such a good-looking type,” suggesting that she holds very high hopes for him, both on and off the racetrack.j
Bathurst’s leading driver made it a 2YO double when she drove father Steve’s filly Casuarina Belmer to a good win in the final race, positioning the Courage Under Fire daughter in the one-one and proving just a bit too good for leader Bettor Jiggle, with the last half of the 2:00.9 trip covered in 57.8 seconds.
Menangle trainer-driver KerryAnn Turner has enjoyed many successes at Bathurst, such as her 2016 Shirley Turnbull win with Aztec Bromac, but it’s certain she’s never had a night quite like the one she enjoyed last Friday.
When she led throughout with I Am Serengetti NZ in a C2-C4 sprint, she was joined on-track by a boisterous but good-natured bucks party group, the race sponsors, who declared that if she won a double, they’d extend her an invite to the wedding.
Four races on, in the Hareness Breeders NSW C0-C1 Ladyship Pace, KerryAnn led throughout with short-priced favourite Redbank Addi, with a final half of 58.5s for a 1:56.5 mile.
They didn’t make it onto the track this time, but the bucks party chanted her name long and loud, and the normally reserved KerryAnn couldn’t stop grinning as she paraded the winner. Perhaps she was beginning to wonder about that wedding invitation?
But wait, there’s more… and you know where this is heading, don’t you?
A further invitation followed from the young bucks – all bar one of them, at any rate – that if KerryAnn could make it a treble, she’d score an invite to, you guessed it, the honeymoon!
Now that makes getting an invite into the Miracle Mile, which KerryAnn achieved with Charlaval this year, seem pretty tame, doesn’t it?
The hero of the moment wasn’t deterred by this novel, and rather alarming, prospect and with the chant of “KerryAnn, KerryAnn” echoing loud around the grounds, she drove desperately to score in a heart-stopping finish with race favourite Stormont Star in the following race, a C0 sprint.
KerryAnn’s gracious “no thanks” to her invites was assumed by all parties, but the good nature of the barracking, and her reaction to it, made for plenty of fun.
Other winners on a rather memorable night:
Pay Me Overs NZ (Trevor Munday for James Rando), all the way in a Garrards Dubbo Golden Gig heat, rating 1:56.7 to set the bar for a night of quick times despite the very cold conditions
Stitched Up (Blake Hewitt for Dennis Picker), an even quicker 1:55.7 run, with the Courage Under Fire son (and lookalike) scoring his first win in nine runs this term
Star Writer (Nathan Turnbull), breaking a string of minor places with a fast-finishing victory in the fast-class, a slick 1:54.8 run, the first leg of a training double for Steve Turnbull
Hes Chiming ( John O’Shea for Lester Hewitt), leading throughout in 3YO class and just holding on after wobbling out near the line, his second win in three race starts.
Bathurst race again on May 9, when racing reverts to the winter timetable of Wednesday nights.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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