3 minute read

The star

Siggy Carr & John Blacker

The pair teamed up for a double on the 10-race program. Page took out a maiden/class 1 to finally breakthrough at start 16, while Alpine Blast bounced back from an ordinary performance to win a BM60 (1350m) and add a stack of value into the quaddie as a $21 chance.

Last season Siggy Carr's 12 wins for John Blacker were four times that of any other individual rider, and their 18.5% strike rate together was far higher than both of their overall season averages.

Cornelian Bay – R4 class 1 (1350m)

On face value the performance of beaten odds-on favourite Cornelian Bay was disappointing but he was set a task settling back in a very slowly run affair.

David Pires opted out of the early jostle for positions, settling second last in the field of six but the leaders crawled and when the pace quickened at the 800m the 3YO was flat footed and essentially under hard riding for the back half of the race.

Despite the last 600m of this race being run eight lengths quicker than the 1350m maiden (race 3), the overall time was a half-length behind which shows how slowly the early part of this race was run. Cornelian Bay had the fastest last 400m recorded Stridemaster sectionals of the day, and top three for the last 600m and 200m.

All honours to win the of Rising Light, and as Stapes reported, his hat is now in the 2023 Devonport Cup ring, but the internal stopwatch was seemingly broken for the leaders in the BM68 Hcp (1880m).

Tee Jay Frankie, Irish Shotgun and Dargo declared it on up front, going absolute hell for leather for the first 1000m of the race and it was no great surprise to see two of those three finish last and second last, the exception being Dargo who did a huge job to stick on for third.

The good old fashioned black booker out of the race was Maincourt for trainer Leon Laskey. The 5YO gelding hadn't raced for three months but resuming here he has bumped into a potentially smart one in Rising Light, and in finishing second he had eight lengths back to the third horse!

Time will tell what this type of run may have taken out of the horse first-up, but we certainly won't be seeing $20 about him in a similar race next start.

Biggest Tasracing Official Price movers.

• R7 – Sir Simon. $2 out to $2.9, 1st
• R8 – Summer Fire. $4 out to $8, 6th
• R4 – Cornelian Bay. $2.35 into $1.85, 4th
• R9 – The Executive. $5 out to $11, 4th
• R4 – Gee Gee Enuf Speed. $5 out to $11, 3rd
• R1 – Miss Vivace. $3.3 into $2.45, 4th
• R10 – Neutralize. $4.8 out to $9.5, 7th
• R1 – Tennessee Beach. $2.7 out to $3.7, 3rd
• R9 – Alpine Aviator. $2.6 into $2.1, 7th
• R2 – Medici Princess. $7.5 out to $18, 9th