NEWS
Wanted beats downpour for breakthrough Group 1 win
Posted: Saturday, March 06, 2010 3:39 PM
by Mike Curry
Wanted’s connections never doubted his ability despite a ten-race winless stretch that included a string of near misses in Group 1 races, and the three-year-old Fastnet Rock colt broke through convincingly on Saturday at Flemington.
Wanted set the pace in the $912,641 VRC Newmarket Handicap (Aus-G1) with lightning blazing a foreboding sky. He turned away Starspangledbanner in the straight and comfortably held off fast-closing runner-up Eagle Falls to win by a length just before a powerful thunderstorm pelted Flemington with hail.
Wanted covered the 1,200-meter (5.97-furlong) race on turf rated as dead in 1:10.11 under Luke Nolen for his first Group 1 win and second career stakes victory. He is out of the stakes-winning Snippets mare Fragmentation.
In his previous four starts for trainer Peter Moody, Wanted had come tantalizingly close to success at the highest level. He finished second three-quarters of a length in the Patinack Farm Classic (Aus-G1) in November and second by a head in both the Coolmore VRC Lightning Stakes (Aus-G1) on January 30 and Pulse Pharmacy William Reid Stakes (Aus-G1) on February 13. He entered the Newmarket Handicap off a fourth-place finish, beaten by a half-length, in the Sportingbet Oakleigh Plate (Aus-G1) on February 20 at Caulfield.
"It’s just terrific," Moody told Melbourne’s The Age. “It’s been a very frustrating run of placings in big races with this bloke and it’s great to get the Group 1 on his resume. It’s well deserved."
Eagle Falls edged Oakleigh Plate winner Starspangledbanner by a neck for second.
Starspangledbanner, a winner of two Group 1 races this season, including The Age Caulfield Guineas (Aus-G1) in October, will soon join trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle operation in Ireland after his recent purchase by Michael Tabor.
The Newmarket Handicap was the only one of the three scheduled Group 1 races on Saturday’s card at Flemington contested before the torrential downpour. The Crown Australian Guineas (Aus-G1) and the Darley Australian Cup (Aus-G1) were canceled and rescheduled for March 13.
Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
