News

Bart can smell Derby success

7th Mar 2010

Sydney Morning Herald - Craig Young & Chris Roots - Sunday, 7 March 2010

BART CUMMINGS will chase the AJC Australian Derby with Light Fingers look-a-like Faint Perfume. The VRC Oaks winner, which carries the famed colours of Cummings's Malaysian mate Dato Tan Chin Nam, returned with a last-to-first win in the $400,000, group 2 Kewney Stakes at Flemington yesterday.

''The derby is worth $1.3 million, the AJC Oaks isn't worth as much as this race,'' Dato Tan Chin Nam's racing manager, Duncan Ramage, said after the filly's victory.

Faint Perfume, which Cummings has compared to another of his mighty mites, the 1965 Melbourne Cup winner Light Fingers, might try to win the AJC Derby-Oaks double.

''Her grandmother Danedri was beaten a head in the derby and then won the oaks,'' Ramage said.

SHAAHEQ FOR SLIPPER

David Hayes declared Blue Diamond Stakes runner-up Shaaheq was heading for the Golden Slipper, following a ''soft kill'' at Flemington yesterday.

''I think that Blue Diamond form is super,'' Hayes said. ''The next run for her is going to be the Golden Slipper. I just think she's a bomb-proof filly who is peaking just at the right time.''

Shaaheq had competed in four stakes races before making light work of six rivals yesterday as an odds-on favourite in the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes.

Blue Diamond winning-trainer Danny O'Brien claimed yesterday's VRC Sires' Produce Stakes with outsider Shamrocker. He ruled out a trip to Sydney for the filly, saying she was more of a spring oaks filly.

CLASSIC TUSSLE

Star filly More Joyous is ready to take on Typhoon Tracy in the Coolmore Classic following a fighting win in the Surround Stakes at Warwick Farm yesterday. ''Bring it on,'' Gai Waterhouse's foreman, Tania Rouse, said. ''They have both been dominate in their races this time in, one [Typhoon Tracy] and the other [More Joyous] in Sydney. We think this filly is the best, they probably think the same about theirs, so it makes for an interesting race.''

More Joyous, which started at $1.22, looked in trouble when Hurtle Myrtle loomed up at 200 metres but Nash Rawiller got to work and More Joyous drew away for a half-neck win.

''I thought we were in real strife at the furlong,'' Rawiller said.

''But she found something and was very strong at the end of 1400 metres, which is good sign.''

Hurtle Myrtle's trainer, Matthew Smith, was delighted with his filly's effort. ''She'll improve on that,'' he said. ''We might even have a crack at the Coolmore after that.''

JULIA ALL CLASS

The addition of blinkers made the difference with former South African Dane Julia as she took Listed Wiggle Quality yesterday.

Lee Freedman has targeted the Coolmore Classic with the six-year-old, where she is likely to met Typhoon Tracy and More Joyous.

Glyn Schofield was impressed by the win, as Dane Julia beat Bejewelled and Messenger,

''The blinkers sharpened her right up today,'' he said. ''She's a classy mare.''

ON THE QUIET

Corporate bookmakers are at war after a central operation cut a fellow bagman to just a $10 bet on a $1.53 chance in a soccer international during the week.