Ultimate Sniper, classy and determined as usual, finally broke through for his first win in open company, denying stablemate Self Assured of a winning debut at that level in an exciting finish and stepping up his assault on the big prizes coming up.
He didn’t get it easy, missing the start again and settling well back. A big run in the middle stages to wrest the lead from Self Assured was the winning of the race even though it gave his rival the cover in the running. Ultimate Sniper dug in hard in the straight and just prevailed but did it in style.
The standing start still needs some work in that field.
“The problem I think is that when he races he has a fairly low head carriage but at the start he is getting his head up at the wrong time and making a mistake. We have to work on getting the right compromise for that” Natalie said
“But he went very good. He is on target at this stage”
Mark was not disappointed with Spankem saying pre-race the 20m start he was giving the winner would make things a little harder for him.
“He got a pretty good run and the handicap was the difference in the end but he got home well. I was happy with that run
Blair Orange was more than happy with Self Assured. His main concern is that he may not get to drive him again for a while.
Ï don’t think I will get on him again but we will see what develops.
I was really impressed. He messed up the start a bit but the way he came back to his gear so quickly in his first stand was really encouraging. It was a terrific run really when you consider he was coming out of age group racing and running against horses like those while doing it”
Blair liked the run of Pur Dan in the Sires Stakes heat too.
“He got a nice trip but he didn’t give any ground and it was a good effort.”"
Tim was also very positive about Another Masterpiece.
“He’s in for a good season on that run It was his first race for a long while and he went real good. He won’t be long showing what he can do”
Courtesy of All Stars Racing Stables