MAJOR ARTIE scored a courageous win at Moonee Valley on Friday evening when the
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Dynamic Galloper came from last at the 300m to claim victory in
Race 3 the
Charter Keck Cramer Bm70 over 1600m.
MAJOR ARTIE defeats Reliable Dude and Write The Score
Ridden by Jordan Childs, MAJOR ARTIE (4yo Bay Gelding by Artie Schiller x Major Conquest) (60.0kgs) timed his run with military precision, to snatch victory by 0.1 length over Reliable Dude (58.5kgs) with Write The Score 0.85 length back in third and 2.35 lengths away was the odds-on favourite Eaglemont.
Every horse had their chance, but MAJOR ARTIE was too strong.
Sometimes racing can put forward unexpected results and this was one of these occasions.
Facing the starter for his second run back from a spell,
MAJOR ARTIE was underdone for this assignment at 1600m but our 4yo gelding has
two intangible assets of class and Gai Waterhouse Bone and Muscle.
Originally a field of 10 acceptors, there were 3 scratchings leaving 7 starters to compete.
We had anticipated that the favourite would be hard to beat off the back of his first up run over 1600m where he won by 6 lengths, but we held the belief that it was bred for two miles not one, and whilst it sprinted well when fresh, it may prove too dour around the tight turning Valley layout.
Whilst the second favourite Ayahuasca was a false second favourite as its form was disappointing and was coming off a in a low race failure in Tasmania at its last start.
We also felt eventual runner-up Reliable Dude had pulled the wrong rein when scratching from taking on our own
Texcel, (who won at Sandown on Wednesday) to be saved for this that race was a Bm64 and this was a Bm70 and the other three runners were just making up the numbers.
We had genuine concerns that this race mapped
“ugly” for us, and we would need a top-class ride from the 400m to the winning post to have any chance of victory.
Our map had
MAJOR ARTIE going forward from barrier 2 however being burnt for speed by the two roughies with Write The Score taking up the lead and Lovin’ Laughs sitting on pace with it.
We could see that we could be stuck in third spot on the rails and as the speed came into the race from the 400m, we would be stuck behind speedy squibs who would come back in our face costing us momentum and track position, with only a short 200m straight at Moonee Valley.
Spot of bother ~ Major Artie misbehaves in the stalls
That’s exactly how things panned-out in transit but two other factors combined to present the race to us and class got
MAJOR ARTIE home.
The first was after the field had run 100m, the second favourite Ayahuasca put on a buck jumping display and took itself out of the race and failed to finish, so the field went on with now only 6 runners.
Then at the 550m the rider of the favourite
“took off” carrying 60.5kgs, 5 deep around the field, burning valuable petrol and that horse hit the
“glass ceiling” and tied-up with lactic acid at the 200m and couldn’t go on, just plodding to the line.
So, with the top two fancies gone, the best horse on paper won. However, it still took a courageous ride to do so.
Having given up the lead after the first 400m to the two less fancied runners, Joran saved ground the fence, However as the speed came into the race from the 450m and the field bunched across the track in front of him, the door had closed and we were stuck behind tiring horses with no where to go.
Then at the 250m the gap appeared 3-4 deep and Jordan pushed-the-button and
MAJOR ARTIE was angled across the heels of the weakening leaders to gain galloping room for the final furlong.
This is where class kicked-in. Despite lumping 60.0kgs, he sprinted quickly and then dug deep to fight off the runner-up Reliable Dude who tried hard and despite its pull in weights, was unable to match
MAJOR ARTIE.
Dynamic Owners ride Major Artie home from the grandstand
As the camera’s showed in the replay, the grandstand had a vocal support team of his
Dynamic Syndications Owners barracking hard, alongside A
ustralia’s First Lady of Racing Gai Waterhouse.
MAJOR ARTIE Returns to scale
GAI WATERHOUSE interviewed post race by Racing.com
Jordan Childs weighs-in as the winner
Jordan debriefs with the owners about the win
Winning Owners in the Winner's Circle
This win by
MAJOR ARTIE took his career record to
15 starts: 4 Wins, 1 Second, 3 Thirds and $184,845 in earnings.
Congratulations to his Dynamic Team of Owners: Dynamic Syndications Racing, Mr S B Troughton, Mr R J Gall, Mr P A Craig, Mr A Cranes, Mr G E Smith, Bimbadeen Racing, Mrs A T Woollett, Mr P J Woollett, Mr K B Rice, Mr E Fuller, C J R Racing, Mr A Attieh, LLTPC, MAPC, Mr A D Vella, Mr I D Passmore
It also recorded Dynamic Syndications 753rd Winner, our 27th this season and our 5th Win in the past week.
Onwards and Upwards!