3 minute read
Trainer and jockey quotes after the Ladbrokes Bet Ticker Handicap at Sandown on Saturday taken out by No Effort.
Race Result:
1st: No Effort (Carleen Hefel/Gavin Bedggood) - $4.80
2nd: Bedford (Declan Bates/Anthony & Sam Freedman) - $3.50F
3rd: Mongolian Marshall (Brett Prebble/Stuart Gower) - $21
Winning Time: 1:53.91 Last 600m: N/A
Margins: Long Neck x 3L
No Effort, all heart.
— Racing.com (@Racing) June 12, 2021
Smart ride from Carleen Hefel aboard the 6YO mare. @MelbRacingClub @RacingVictoria pic.twitter.com/d6bnYD4sPY
Winning Trainer: Gavin Bedggood
"First time back on heavy ground for a long time and 51 kilos on her back, Carleen rode her to a tee. We pulled it off.
"My original plan was to run her in the BM78 mile race today and the prospect of 51 kilos on this race versus 57.5 after a claim in the other race was the deciding factor and there looked to be no speed on paper. Carleen rode her exactly how I asked, got creeping down the hill and full bore coming down the dip and 'catch me if you can'.
"If we were run down late then so be it. Too tough."
Winning Jockey: Carleen Hefel
"The plan played out 100-per cent perfect. Gavin said he was confident with the weight and the conditions that she could fend off and she did."
Last 50 metres: "She's a tough mare, she wants to keep going and you can just feel her coming back underneath you. She really digs in and holds on.
"You've really go to set the right tempo for the weight and if you go too slow they're going to storm around you and if you go too quickly you might not have anything left. It was all about setting the right tempo and going when we needed to."
** MICK KENT CONCERNS OVER ZIPPING CLASSIC DAY MOVEMENT **
"I can understand what they're trying to do but it's just blatant that the MRC want to get rid of this place. It's a superior track, it's the best racetrack in Australia, probably.
"The configuration provides the fairest racing. It is bordering on a Soft 7 today with all of that rain. Beautiful surface and a big galloping track yet they wanted to cut the prizemoney of that race last year to make it look poor and with the Ballarat Cup worth more money.
"This year they'll move it later in the month and triple the prizemoney. It still worries me with the Sandown Guineas. If you've got a good three-year-old you need to spell that horse after the spring to get him ready for Sydney. I suspect it will lose its group status. I'd be very surprised if it isn't a benchmark 70 or something.
"As far as the Zipping Classic being worth as much money as it was last year, you're only going to get the country cup horses now. You need to spell the good horses and they need time off.
"I suspect that the Sandown Cup will become a heat of the Jericho Cup - a highweight just about - which is a two-mile race which I think is a great race here for horses that are looking towards the following year.
"Caulfield is not the racetrack that this place is and it will change the whole thing, the dynamics of the race. And I suspect that they'll run out of horses. Something will be cannibalised. It'll either be the Pakenham Cup, Ballarat Cup or the Sandown races. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at it, if there's not the pool of horses - especially if you have a good horse who has had a good spring, you have to spell that horse to get them ready for the autumn.
"We can't keep them going, we know that. We know all of the bone study tells us that you've got to have eight weeks off in a year with a horse to manage all of the microfractures in their skeleton. I don't know where the horses will come from.
"I can't see the programme at Caulfield being very strong and I'll be surprised if it was. For horses to run that late in the year for that much money, I'd be surprised if it warrants it.
"If you've got a decent weight-for-age horse or a handicapper, you have to get them ready for the next preparation. You can't keep them going forever."
