September 2015

FLASH IN THE DARK and ATLANTIC SENTINEL provided a tremendously enjoyable double in Canberra on 25 September. This was Tony Campbell Cup Day, which is always a very enjoyable day of racing, honouring and remembering the very popular Canberra racecaller, who died ten years ago. The meeting also has the Canberra Premiership presentations, so with all that entertainment, we had three Laurel Oak tables at the luncheon that day. Capping that off with two winners was a perfect piece of timing.

Atlantic Sentinel won the first on the day to score his maiden win at his fourth race start. He is the first foal of the former talented Laurel Oak racemare, CUT AND RUN, and he looks to have a promising future. While his win was at 1400m, he looks set to be even better at 1600m and perhaps beyond, but we will have to wait until next preparation to find that out, as he has now gone for a spell. Last month we reported in on Canberra’s Capital Cash prizemoney boost at every second meeting, and Atlantic Sentinel won the first of these races, which was an $18,000 maiden.

Flash In The Dark book-ended the day by winning the last, giving trainer Keith Dryden a treble for the day. She was resuming from a spell, and this made it two wins from three starts for this well-bred filly. The win was perfect timing to go to the first of the Sydney metropolitan Highway Races. While originally announced to start in December, there was a Racing NSW announcement on the morning of the 25 September Canberra meeting that the concept was being fast-tracked and that the first race would be held at Randwick on 16 October as a Class 2 1200m race for country-trained horses.

This was perfect in terms of class and distance for Flash In The Dark, so Keith Dryden targeted that race, but that is where the “perfection” ended, as she was badly interfered with in the race and the occasion got to her, so she finished well back. She may now run in Canberra on Melbourne Cup Day.

In an era where the red carpet is rolled out for any colt within a breath of a group 1 win, how refreshing for a six-year-old stallion to still be on the track.

In truth, Rebel Dane has been all dressed up as a group 1 winner for two years now. It is just that no one has really wanted to come to his party. At least not recently.

“We’ve had enquiries, but we’ve never had a firm offer for him,” shrugged managing part-owner Louis Mihalyka. “Just at the time he would have been ideal for going to stud he stopped winning.

“While he has been running thirds and fourths in group 1 races, he hasn’t won a race since the Rupert Clarke two years ago. With that the interest and enquiries stopped.

“A couple of agents said when you retire him let us know and we had a few interested parties in May or June and they all dropped off. Now we just thought we’re going to enjoy him and let what will be be basically.”

Small and scrawny, with a breathing problem now amended, you can’t blame studmasters from shying away from Rebel Dane. But if there was ever an advertisement for his niche market post-racing days, The Shorts at Randwick on Saturday was it.

“I would have been a bit disappointed if he got beat today, to tell you the truth,” trainer Gary Portelli said after Brenton Avdulla lifted Rebel Dane to a last-stride win from Ball Of Muscle in the group 2 sprint.

“I hadn’t said it out loud, but I couldn’t see how these horses were going to beat him if he came back. He’s the only group 1 horse in the race and his qualifications have him [racing well] against the top group 1 horses.”

Which is exactly the same path Rebel Dane will plot this spring, en route to another Manikato Stakes showdown with Chautauqua and Terravista, a race-day scratching from The Shorts due to a waterlogged track.

It left Shiraz an overwhelming favourite at Randwick, but Tony McEvoy’s emerging sprinter laboured a little in third as Rebel Dane mowed down Ball Of Muscle to score by a half-head, showing no ill-effects from a recent throat operation.

“My legs are like jelly,” Portelli said. “When he was racing as a three-year-old he was 440 [kilograms]. He’s come a long way physically and looking at him I thought he might have even been a bit big, but that’s what we needed for 1100 [metres]. It was a lot easier to saddle him [today] – he didn’t try to kill us as badly as what he usually does.”

Avdulla had no qualms when overnight rain on Friday plunged the Randwick track into the heavy range before an upgrade earlier in the day.

“Doing his form and tapes [Friday] night and [Saturday] morning, he has had two goes on heavy tracks, he was beaten by Pierro one time and the other one was behind Lankan Rupee in the TJ Smith,” Avdulla said.

Joe Pride was forced to replace the three little letters he likes to attach to the Terravista name, “WBS”, with “SCR” on Saturday, but would have been forgiven for thinking it didn’t matter as Ball Of Muscle shot clear close to home.

“He’s never missed a place and he always run a good race,” he said. “We’ll go to the Moir because it’s the right race at the right distance.”

News from Adam Pengilly, SMH

Rebel Dane will return to the races in the 2015 The Shorts and trainer Gary Portelli is hopeful that the throat operation the six-year-old received during his stint in the spelling paddock will help him return to his best form.

Rebel Dane has not recorded a race win since his narrow victory in the 2013 edition of the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.

Rebel Dane started his autumn campaign with a slightly disappointing sixth in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on March 27 and jockey Blake Shinn informed connections that the California Dane entire had trouble breathing when he finished 11^th in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 18.

Portelli told RSN that Rebel Dane had responded well to the tie-back operation and he said that he could not be happier with his star galloper ahead of The Shorts this weekend.

“We couldn’t be happier with him,” Portelli said.

“He has had the perfect little prep.

“He had a tieback operation, his throat was a problem last campaign but he is really going well and he is a really happy horse.

“I am looking forward to the weekend, but it will be a tough race.

“I haven’t had that many.

“I’m All The Talk was one that was done as a three-year-old and he came out and ran second to Terravista and ran a couple of good races after that.

“They are never really 100 percent, but the way Rebel’s throat was at the end of last campaign we will certainly see good improvement at the start of the campaign at least.

“He is breathing really well and he is really attacking the line in trackwork.”

Rebel Dane recorded his only win at Group 1 level when he claimed a narrow victory in the 2013 edition of the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes and Portelli believes that 1400 metres is the ideal trip for the six-year-old.

Portelli believes that Rebel Dane was not getting enough oxygen to his lungs during his autumn campaign to run out a strong 1400 metres or beyond, but he is hopeful that the throat operation will help the entire bounce back to his best.

“I actually think we could go the other way because he is going to get more air down and you will be able to get him over a little further because he will be able to sustain a sprint longer,” Portelli said.

“That will give us more options in terms of placing him, he is a very high-rated horse now and it makes it hard to place him.

“You couldn’t put him in a handicap, so he is basically stuck in set weights races and weight-for-age races, which doesn’t give you too many starts in the year.

“If we can get him over a little bit further it opens him up for some of the other weight-for-age races.”

Photo by The Raceller Twitter

Story by Thomas Hackett, Oze Form

Tony Noonan’s Mr Optimistic is among a host of Spring Carnival hopes kicking off their campaigns when racing returns to the turf track at Racing.com Park on Wednesday.