Low-key mare just keeps on running
CAROLYN Knight’s fears she may have gone to the well too many times with Dragon Artist were quashed after the mare racked up a strong win at Geelong yesterday.
The seven-year-old has only had a couple of freshenups since her last spell in January, but showed no signs of needing a break with an allthe-way victory in the Farrah Dobell High Kick Handicap.
Dragon Artist has won three races since joining Knight’s Geelong stables.
“She doesn’t know how to run a bad race, really,” Knight said.
“She is trained out of a paddock and she comes into the track two, three times a week. (She) just has a play around at home. We don’t do much with her.
“We will see how she pulls up (before deciding if we keep running her). We might see if we can get one more, or she goes for a well-deserved break.
“But as I said, she does nothing in between her races. Sometimes they don’t see her for a week and we come back again.”
Dragon Artist led easily with Ben Thompson on board, burning off Kelvin Smith’s Astro Miss on the bend before holding off Darren Weir’s Banachek by almost two lengths.
“She is well presented by Carolyn and her team and there is no doubt she is a really happy horse at the moment and she is loving her racing,” Thompson said.
“She is a competitor. Going back through her tapes, she always tries.
“She probably appreciated being back at Geelong, where she has always run well.
“She was too strong at 64 grade. She knows where the post is here. A couple of starts ago when she won she had a really solid furlong on her.
“You need to be travelling at the top of the straight, but I could wait as long as I could and she was strong to the line.
“I’m sure there are better things in store.”