Mayfield-smith On Road Back
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 20, 2008
BRIAN Mayfield-Smith's drought is officially over after he trained a double at Flemington yesterday with horses who had not won since April last year.
Mayfield-Smith, who trained his first city winner for almost four months when Benatar won on January 9 at Sandown, yesterday saddled Road To Athens and Stickpin to score at Flemington. "Maybe I've turned the corner," he said. "I can't remember my last city double, it was that long ago."The worse thing is that these two are my A-team. You just work down from these two in my stable so it was pleasing to see them both finally win again."Mayfield-Smith said his "bad trot", during which he scratched his best horse, Maybe Better, just a few hours before the Melbourne Cup last November, had made him doubt himself. "You start to lose faith in yourself but it shows, I suppose, that I still haven't lost it."The trainer said Road To Athens, who started $3.40 favourite in the National Jockeys Trust Handicap (2530 metres), would be set for the Adelaide Cup in May while Stickpin, who won the listed Chester Manifold Stakes (1410 metres) 40 minutes later, would stay in similar class.? Adelaide sprinter Grand Duels will attempt to continue his affinity with the Flemington track in next month's group 1 $500,000 Lightning Stakes after scoring his second win down the straight course yesterday in the listed RDA Victoria Stakes (1100 metres).Morphettville trainer Byron Cozamanis said the four-year-old, winner of six of his 10 starts, had shown that he excelled on the straight course so he would try him against the better-performed sprinters in the 1000-metre Lightning. Starting at $5.50, Grand Duels raced away to win by 13/4 lengths from La Chasseuse ($10).? Trainer Steve Richards was one person at Flemington yesterday who had not lost faith in three-year-old Playwright despite his previous-start defeat as odds-on favourite. Now, Richards is looking to step the gelding up to group 1 company in the Cadbury Guineas at Flemington in March.Playwright was unplaced at Sandown as the $1.95 favourite earlier this month and punters let him go around at $13 yesterday but after drifting back early, he produced a sizzling finish to win the Zaidee's Rainbow Plate (1410 metres)."I thought he was ridiculous odds last time as he was second-up and stepping from 1000 metres to 1300 and I wasn't too disappointed in his run as he got stopped in his tracks and with 58 kilograms, it's very difficult to pick up again," Richards said.Richards said the $755,000 Cadbury Guineas (1600 metres) on March 8 was the target for the horse.? Forty minutes can be a long time in racing, as Caulfield trainer Rick Hore-Lacy found at Flemington yesterday.After watching with disbelief the moderate performances of his two two-year-olds in the opening event, Hore-Lacy was in the winner's stall following another victory from promising stayer Britomart in the second race."I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the first," Hore-Lacy said. "But the General Nediym colt (Commissioned, who led but ran second last) got his tongue over the bit and came back blowing a gale while the filly (Dashalot, who finished fourth) went a bit hard and will be better ridden more quietly, so it wasn't so bad."As for Britomart ($4.20), who was bred and is owned by Gerry Harvey, Hore-Lacy said the win over 2000 metres yesterday pointed to the Zabeel mare having potential as a stayer. "She's been gradually improving and I entered her for the Launceston Cup the other day, so we might go there," he said.? Access to the beach helped Bangholme trainer Brian Jenkins secure yesterday's Iramoo Handicap winner Electrostatic, who looks bound for better races as long as she can stay sound.Jenkins explained after the former Kiwi mare won at her Australian debut, that Electrostatic had been originally placed with a trainer at Caulfield but as she had suspect knees, the New Zealand owners transferred her to the former Kiwi trainer, who has easier access to the beaches near Carrum.
© 2008 The Sunday Age
