Spirit’s Pride fights back to secure win
‘‘ MADELEINE RODE HER WELL AND SHE LOOKS TO BE AN UP AND COMER. STEVE TREGEA
RACING: Toowoomba colt Spirit’s Pride turned his luck around with perfect timing to set up a likely feature-race assignment with a return to winning form at Clifford Park on Saturday.
Spirit’s Pride ($16) bounced back from two unplaced runs to claim his third Clifford Park win with a determined effort in the Create With Coffee QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap (1210m).
After forging to the front inside the final 150m for jockey Shannon Apthorpe, Spirit’s Pride held off solid-finishing stablemate Welcome Nugget ($6) by a half length.
Top Luck ($4.60) was a neck back third but in a tragic twist for her connections the filly broke down after passing the post and was euthenased.
Apprentice Madeleine Wishart crashed to the ground in the incident but was able to regain her feet after being attended to by paramedics before being transferred to hospital for observation.
Saturday’s race carried for the winner ballot-free entry into next month’s $200,000 QTIS Three-Year-Old Jewel (1200m) at the Gold Coast.
Spirit’s Pride’s return to the winner’s stall came as no surprise to trainer Michael Nolan who quinellad the event.
“Nothing went right for him last start at Warwick,” Nolan said.
“But we took the blinkers off him today, he drew an alley, he got all the favours and that can be the difference.”
Wishart’s fall followed her opening race victory aboard Kopella.
Form worked out to a tee for favourite punters when Kopella arrived for her popular win in the Neil Mansell Transport Ratings Band 0-60 Handicap (1870m).
The Top Echelon four-yearold proved a class above her rivals as she cleared out for a comfortable victory over Brumby Jack ($9) with the aid of a neat Wishart ride.
Kopella finished fourth in Saturday metropolitan company two runs previously before finishing third at Clifford Park after a checkered passage.
But the cards fell perfectly into place on Saturday for Wishart.
“Madeleine rode her well and she looks to be an up and comer,” Steve Tregea said.
“The mare is no world beater but she tries hard.
“The way she won today she might be able to go on and pick up a suitable Class 3 or Ratings Band 70 race.”
Tregea book-ended the marathon program when Vanzant ($2.80 fav) took out the Furney’s Maiden Handicap (1000m) for apprentice Michael Murphy.
■ Saturday night’s Clifford Park card finished more than an hour later than scheduled following several incidents during the night including a roaming wallaby on the track which had to be rounded up prior to the running of race four.