3 minute read
Trainer and jockey quotes following Lady Of Honour winning the Stow Storage Solutions BenchMark 90 Handicap at Caulfield on Saturday.
Race Result:
1st: Lady Of Honour (Ben & JD Hayes/Jake Noonan) - $3.10F
2nd: Ocean Miss (D & C Feek/B Prebble) - $14
3rd: Saigon (C Waller/J McNeil) - $6
Winning Time: 1:25.49 Last 600m: NA
Margins: 1-¼ Lengths x Short Head
Lady Of Honour was supported in the market & they couldn't catch her! @lindsayparkrace pic.twitter.com/9Ss1BHpb6A
— Racing.com (@Racing) August 27, 2022
Winning Trainer: Ben & JD Hayes (Ben interviewed)
On today's performance: "She was a little bit fresh, she got rolling a bit and Jake did a good job. She wanted to get her head up and go and I think that's from her first run when they went so hard. But to her credit she was able to absorb that and she was really strong again through the line."
On Jake Noonan's effort to get to 54kg: "Good on Jake, he rang me on Tuesday and said, 'which race are you heading to the (benchmark) 90 or the 78?'. I said, 'unfortunately the 90'. So he's had to waste a week to get this ride and it was good to see him get a result. He only had the one ride today."
On the future: "She's a horse we've always held in really high regard, we have a lot of time for her and she has so much more improvement.
"She's the biggest eater in our stable, she's got so much improvement, so I'm really hopeful (with her) and I have to thank Coolmore for letting me and JD race her on. She did injure herself up in Queensland, so we had to rehab her and it was 10 months between, so hopefully we can improve that pedigree again and off today's effort I think she can."
Winning Jockey: Jake Noonan
On getting down to 54kg for the ride: "It's not pretty natural for me to get that low, the last time I did was Derby Day last year, so it takes a lot of resilience.
"I'm lucky I've got great support at home, my fiance (Mariah) helped manage the kids, sort of took the kids for me, the last couple of days just so I could focus on getting to the weight.
"I'm tough on myself as it is, I know how to train and eat, but I just had good support at home to be able to just wind down when I need to and focus on what was ahead."
On today's run: "She began very well and I probably anticipated Pat Carey's horse (Starlight Scope) leading, but I was just a length in front of it the whole way for the first 100 and I just thought, I've got plenty of horse to let stride and cross and lead so I made that decision.
"From that point onwards it was just about game over because I got a nice breather and really worked to her strength from the 600 and amped her up and she showed her ability today."
