Ganderton in sizzling form
TALENTED senior rider Daniel Ganderton made the most of a jockey exodus in Devonport last Saturday by riding three winners on the eight-event program.
A half-dozen of the state’s regular riders were missing from the first meeting of the new season. Ganderton’s treble came courtesy of lightly raced mare Words of Pride from the Scott Brunton stable and the last two were Fighting Phoenix and Skip Town Mike, both prepared at Wesley Vale by Glenn Stevenson.
Words of Pr i d e was impressive, scoring by 1½ lengths from Mywordis, with Brimondo four lengths astern. Brunton said his mare had been a work in progress.
Fighting Phoenix ($3.10) won two in succession in AprilMay but at this latest outing the just-turned four-year-old mare delivered arguably her best effort when first-up from a three-month spell.
“We’ve always had a good opinion of this mare and Daniel has done just about every bit of work on her, so she is special to him,” Stevenson said. “As to where she goes next will depend on whether a couple of races here in Tassie hold up in the next fortnight or so, otherwise we will have no option but to take her across the water [Melbourne].”
Skip Town Mike was even more impressive, leading throughout to win a benchmark 58m handicap carrying 61.5kg. The gelded son of Annekov cruised to the lead and under a good hold at the 400m mark Ganderton released the reins slightly and he put two l engths on his rivals and went on to win comfortably.
Skip Town Mike resumed from a spell at the end of June with a similar effort to win over 1350m and he stepped up three weeks later for a game second to Braccenby over 1650m.
“Skip Town Mike has returned to racing better than ever and this latest win tells us he is thriving on his work and is relishing stepping up in trip,” Stevenson said. The former Victorian has been very competitive in benchmark 58 grade but when he steps up in class he also should benefit from some weight relief.
The experiment of swapping a regular Sunday afternoon spot for an early start on Saturday with half of the eight races on Sky 1 will be judged on turnover figures that should be known by the end of the week.
On-course patronage was woeful on Saturday, but that’s not to say punters around the nation didn’t invest. The first race had only three starters with the win pool on TAB holding less than $1000, but pools for the next three races shown on Sky 1 were healthy.
However, when the meeting switched to Sky 2 for the balance of the eight- race card the pool sizes dropped dramatically.