|
In a day of major upsets at the prestigious Guineas meeting at Caulfield, trainer John O'Shea sent a ripple through the Rosehill stands when Mimidae beat short-priced favourite Hoystar in the Leabrook Farms Pure Honey Hcp (1200m).
The O'Shea-trained Racing To Win displaced El Segundo as the Cox Plate favourite after the latter was beaten in the Yalumba Stakes while Newcastle star Court Command ran third in the Caulfield Guineas as favourite.
The John Hawkes-trained Hoystar started at $1.40 and his lack of experience showed after he fell short by half a length to Mimidae ($12) who was ridden by O'Shea's apprentice Tim Clark.
Despite the loss, Hawkes' foreman Peter Snowden said he was still happy with the performance of Hoystar.
"He's been built up too much by the media but I've got no excuses for the loss," Snowden said.
"Everyone knows that you need 10 to 12 starts before you find out what a horse is about and that race was good experience for him today and you can't buy experience."
Jockey Darren Beadman said the son of Danzero, purchased for $400,000, simply didn't fire on Saturday.
"I waited and waited but when he sprinted he was found wanting," Beadman said.
However, the day belonged to Mimidae and O'Shea's foreman Brian Gentle said the win wasn't a shock to him.
Mimidae finished fifth to Street Smart in the Group Two Light Fingers at Randwick in February and kept O'Shea's record of a winner at every Saturday meeting in Sydney this season intact.
"She was only two and three-quarter lengths behind the winner in that race," Gentle said.
"We've always had a good opinion of the horse."
Beadman had better luck in the next race when he carried the Makybe Diva colours to victory aboard On The Up in the Osram Plate (1900m) in which the minor placegetters in the race, Old Mystique and Amen had plenty of excuses.
Amen, who started from the outside barrier (10) was posted wide early by Red Lord who refused to settle for Clark while Old Mystique had an equally bumpy run after he was held up for a run 250m out.
Old Mystique's trainer Bede Murray looked disappointed after the run and described it as "very unlucky".
© 2010 Published 14/10/06
|
