It would have been the greatest miscarriage of justice if UP TO MISCHIEF would have been denied being elevated to the Winner of Race 3 the SEEARS WORKWEAR Maiden Handicap at Canberra on Friday, but there was no need to be concerned as the Stewards had no hesitation in reversing the placings, elevating UP TO MISCHIEF to become the winner and demoting first past the post JAZZ ALL KNIGHT back to second spot.
Facing the starter for the first time off the back of some nice barrier trials, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace trained 3yo filly UP TO MISCHIEF (Written Tycoon ex More Mischievous) was presented to the races in magnificent order.
UP TO MISCHIEF had been the victim of disgraceful barrier draws leading into this event and been scratched from several races having drawn off the track and to be fair this was no better when drawing the visitors draw of 15 of 16. Its hard for a mature, well-educated horses to give away such a disadvantage, let alone for an inexperienced, unraced 3yo.
We had her nominated for Canberra on Friday and Kembla on Saturday where again she drew wide in barrier 13.
It was our original intent to scratch from Canberra however after doing our homework, we discovered there would be six scratchings and she would jump away from barrier 10 of 10.
So even though it was still a significant disadvantage, we considered her form upon the training tracks at home was good enough to overcome the draw.
Plus, we were aware she had the gatespeed to work across and take a forward position on a track that significantly favours on pace horses at the home turn.
We put on our go to team member Andrew Adkins to ride her for us, and the instructions were simple, push up and cross the face of the field and hopefully Jazz All Knight pushes up to hold the fence. We believed it would stop and we would sail past it in the straight.
Sent out a $4.20 chance, the race over the first 400m panned out exactly as we had predicted.
UP TO MISCHIEF was quickly away, as was Jazz All Knight who held the fence, whilst a couple of runners underneath us also pushed forward trapping our filly 4 deep.
Andrew let our filly continue her forward progression and by the 1000m she was across and sitting at the girth of the leader, where she was able to slacken the tempo and bowl along nicely without burning unnecessary gas.
1000m
800m
400m
Swinging around the home turn and balancing for the run home with 300m to run, all her peers were under significant pressure, yet UP TO MISCHIEF was cruising with Andrew not having moved on her.
300m
Passing the 280m Andrew pushed the go button and UP TO MISCHIEF picked up a length to be at the hindquarter of the leader and was full of running when a race catastrophe occurred.
Without warning, the rider of the leader lost his compass,
and his mount directly ran out onto our filly cannoning into her. It
was a nasty check and Andrew was lucky to stay in the saddle and UP TO MISCHIEF
was also lucky to stay on her feet. Such was the momentum of the check
that our filly lost all her race speed and had to be turned at 45
degrees to avoid falling. This cost our filly just on 2 lengths.
250m
245m - Interference costs our filly momentum & distance
At the 150m UP TO MISCHIEF was now re-balanced and came again chasing the leader. A lesser horse and a lesser rider would have given up but not our Dynamic Duo.
50m
Stride-by-Stride our filly kept eating into the margin.
With 50m to go, she was still a clear length behind, but she was trying hard.
Then over the last 4 strides she ran the leader to a neck as the camera flashed.
We had finished second past the post, but the interference had cost her every bit of two lengths disadvantage, so it became just a matter of administrative process to fire in an objection to the Stewards and allow them the opportunity to review the evidence.
Whilst this was happening, journalists and punters alike were going crazy on social media about the interference UP TO MISCHIEF had received.
There was never anytime that we were concerned that the protest may not have been up upheld, and it didn’t take long for the Stewards to advise the punters accordingly.
As a result, UP TO MISCHIEF is now a Winner on debut for a terrific Team of Dynamic Owners: Dynamic Ladies, Mr G Harvey, Mr D A Poletto, Mr G Cornell, Mr M J Millner, Mrs J Tiliacos, Mr K Tiliacos, Mrs S Dib, Mr S Dib, Mr J P Brennan, Mighty Mascara, Mrs T Stafidas, Mr B Stafidas, Mrs J M Richardson, Mr T Krezo, Mr D Coughtrey, Mr S D Murray, Ms A Whiley
It’s also another winner for the Dynamic / Ciaron Maher Racing Team.
Hot off the terrific win of I AM ME last weekend in the $2m Gr3 Sydney Stakes, they have us back in the winners circle this week with another well-bred lovely looking filly.
Up To Mischief - Winner 20.10.23 from Dynamic Syndications on Vimeo.
This win by UP TO MISCHIEF was Dynamic Syndications 846th Win Overall and our 18th Race Win for the current racing season.
It was also our 295th Individual Winner from 334 Individual Runners which is a strike rate of 88.3% Winners to Runners.
Congratulations to our Dynamic Ownership Team.
Onwards and Upwards!