 The aptly named Casual Friday made it three wins on the trot this afternoon at Flemington after winning the $70,000 Riverside 0-82 Handicap (1400m) for mares. Tell The Story led the field into the straight with the Greg Eurell trained Piece Of The Sky looming up to challenge. Vitex peeled out wide while Little Antics and Causal Friday made their runs simultaneously up the middle of the straight to hit the lead at the furlong pole. In what was a pulsating finish, Little Antics fought back to hit the lead before Casual Friday had her head infront where it mattered to win by the barest of margins. With Dwayne Dunn in the saddle, Casual Friday ($9-$11-$10) defeated Little Antics ($4-$5) by a short half head with Vitex ($4.20-$4.80) running her usual honest race in third a further one and three quarter lengths away. Piece Of The Sky ($9) finished fourth while Starmon ($9) crossed the line ahead of favourite Chameleon ($4.20 fav) in sixth. Trained by the partnership of Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra, Casual Friday has won all three races this preparation. "She's had growing pains up to now and she's come back fully matured - she's a progressive mare," Ellerton said. "She's still got a bit to learn, it was a beautiful ride by Dwayne (Dunn) we might look for something else for her. Dunn was impressed with the performance adding "everytime I asked her for an effort she really dug deep." "She got to the front and stargazed a little bit and gave the second horse a bit of an opportunity to come back and make her work for it. "This preparation she keeps on finding her grades, going onto better things and as I said to Scott, ‘she's no star but she just tries as hard as she can' and that's all you can ask from her," he added. Casual Friday has now won three races from six starts with Ellerton waiting to see how the daughter of Tale Of The Cat pulls up. "We'll just have to be guided by her, she's lightly raced and she's got the best infront of her," he added. Casual Friday is out of the dam Belle Star who has produced seven winners from seven foals. Picture - Quentin Lang
© 2010 Published 01/01/10
|
