Lady Val makes a statement
IF YOU had been in a horse racing quiz, the race paused at the 50m mark and asked who had won the third at Greyville yesterday, nine out of ten will have been confident of Alraune.
Hot favourite Lady Val required all the considerable experience of Anton Marcus to get her home ahead of the more experienced Alraune with Marcus being praised as the “consummate professional” by James Goodman.
Marcus nursed his mount for much of the race as the penny refused to drop, but once balanced up and only Alraune ahead of her, the former champion picked up his filly and asked for maximum.
Lady Val
Lady Val quickened in an instant and buried Alraune four jumps from the line to win going away.
“I think she’s very good,” said Goodman, “and she will get 10 furlongs and further.
“I ended up with her as a weanling and although we put her on various sales we did not get the price that we paid for her.”
“She may just be the best filly that I’ve trained,” said the veteran trainer.
Big words after just a maiden victory, but it was a showing good enough to give substance to Goodman’s claim.
Table Bay
Lady Val was the seventh win of a successful weekend for Marcus but he does face an inquiry for his ride on Table Bay in the Matchem Stakes where he raised the ire of the stipendiary stewards for possibly keeping Gold Standard a little too tight on the fence.
Bidding for four straight yesterday aboard favourite World Dreamer, he got involved in a tangle with Brandon Lerena as he shifted across the bows of Edge Of Glory.
The two jockeys went at it, whips waving in barely legal fashion, seemingly oblivious of apprentice Ashton Arries sneaking March Preview through on the pair’s inside.
Arries got his apprenticeship off to a rocky start after a couple of indiscretions threatened his riding career but he has put that behind him and made the most of his reprieve.
“I want to be champion apprentice and a champion jockey,” he said candidly earlier this year in his now customary deadpan delivery.
Rising talent
The legendary Michael Roberts should know what it takes and recognises a rising talent.
“He has what it takes. He has the right attitude although he can be a little cheeky. But he studies form and often tells me things that I have not picked up. That’s was you need.”
Arries rode a double for Roberts on Friday and March Preview was an added bonus yesterday for another legend of the saddle, Garth Puller.