By Michael Guerin
Tom Bagrie has a late message for slot holders in the $500,000 Ascent at Addington next Friday.
“Just in case anybody has anything go wrong, and we hope they don’t, you can tell them we are keen to help out,” says Bagrie.
The “we” in that sentence are Bagrie and the other owners of high-class filly Dash Dosh, who recorded the fourth win of her career very convincingly in the Horses Perform Better On Betavet Trot at Addington on Friday.
In a race that changed complexion enormously when $1.20 favourite Ya Rite Darl galloped at the start, Dash Dosh showed both manners and a touch of class to beat Tribbiani.
Bagrie says he would love to be in next Friday’s slot race but as the majority owner of his filly he didn’t have the lions share of $30,000 lying around so couldn’t quite stretch to a slot.
“Hey we know the slots are all full and good luck to everybody in the race but if somebody did have something go wrong over the weekend well she is here and we’d love to help out.”
If Dash Dosh doesn’t get the emergency call-up Bagrie won’t have to wait long for the next perfect target with the NZ Trotting Oaks the following Friday.
“The Trotting Oaks has been the race we have set her for all along and she is going to head there confident and in a really good place.
“She has always had that real ability but like a lot of young trotters she went through a phase where she had to learn what it is all about.
“But she has come out the other side of that now a better horse and her last four starts at Addington has now been for three wins and a second.”
Bagrie is doing okay with 12 horses in work including five racehorses but says there is always more room for owners who think a young trainer with a smaller team might suit their horse.
While Dash Dosh was putting her hand up as a contender to whatever the next month brings, Ya Rite Darl’s connections will be hoping the old saying “a poor dress rehearsal makes for a great show” is proved right as they look forward to the Ascent.
She turned multi tickets into waste paper just a stride after the start in a race she was thrown into to keep her ticking over before next Friday’s slot race.
Still, you suppose it is better to make that mistake for $15,000 this Friday and learn from it than make it next Friday for about 33 times more money.
Team Dunn had more lucky with another young filly in the first trot of the night when Petite Armour got things right and recorded her second in just four starts.
Cyclone Rebel regains winning form at Alexandra Park
By Michael Guerin
Trainer Tate Hopkins knows his weekend could have been so much different for he and Cyclone Rebel.
But after a win at Alexandra Park on Friday night he has no regrets about missing the far richer Sires’ Stakes Final at Addington on Tuesday.
Cyclone Rebel qualified for the final by winning his heat at Alexandra Park on debut, no mean feat in itself which suggested he is a smart young pacer.
Hopkins was planning to take him to Addiington until he only finished third in a moderate race at Alexandra Park last week, hardly the sort of form that inspires you to spend thousands heading to a Group 1 to butt heads with Jumal.
“We were thinking about it but last week dented my confidence,” says Hopkins.
“Looking back it shouldn’t have because it was probably trainer error.
“He won his trial so well the week before I thought he didn’t need much more so I think I was too easy on him leading into last week.
“But he was fitter tonight and that was much more like it.”
But even though Cyclone Rebel was able to make it two wins in just four starts, Hopkins says he will watch Tuesday’s Group 1 for the babies at Addington feeling he has done the right thing.
“You look at horses like Jumal who have had that extra racing and are clearly very good and you realise how hard it would be done there, especially now he has drawn barrier three.
“We could have gone down there and maybe gutted in early in his career whereas he has had a confidence-boosting win tonight.”
Hopkins says the logical last aim for the season for Cyclone Rebel is the Golden Gait Finals at Alexandra Park on December 19.
“I am sure he is qualified now with four starts here but it won’t matter because he will need at least another race here before he heads there anyway.
“I know the stake has been reduced to $50,000 but it is still $50,000 on your home track so we are glad to have that as a target and then he has plenty of good three-year-old races he can target next season which we think he could be competitive in.”
Another impressive two-year-old winner on Friday night was debutant Nazare who justified his hot favouritism to win in a 1:57.4 mile rate with a slick 26.6 second last 400m.
He is one of 14 two-year-olds Arna Donnelly has in work and rated a horse who will make an even better three-year-old, with the Cambridge trainer realistic about the fact she might run out of races to qualify him for the Golden Gait.
And in one of the more unusual trotting doubles at Alexandra Park in recent years driver Joshua Dickie drove a winner for his father John training Paramount Spur and one for his fiancee Sammy Kilgour training Loteria won later in the programme.
