Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Eighteen Carat has taken Western Australia by storm since arriving here from New Zealand ten months ago, and the Mach Three five-year-old gave another magnificent performance to notch her fifth group feature event when she finished powerfully to snatch victory in the $50,000 Group 2 Retravision Christmas Belles Free-For-All for mares at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Her victory gave up-and-coming trainer Michael Young and champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr their second Group 2 success in the space of 26 minutes, following the victory of Firerockfireroll in the Allwood Stud Farm Christmas Gift.
Eighteen Carat has proved to be WA’s best mare. After five wins and six placings from 38 starts in New Zealand Eighteen Carat has dominated in mares’ company, with her 13 starts in WA producing eight wins and three placings for stakes of $229,113 to boost her career earnings to $279,586.
Her previous feature wins were the Group 1 Norms Daughter Classic, the Group 2 Schrader Pace and two Group 3 events for mares.
Eighteen Carat had endured tough runs from wide barriers at her three previous appearances, and she was generally overlooked by punters on Friday night when she started at the gift odds of $8.50, mainly because of her awkward barrier at No. 5 over the 2130m journey. The $2.80 favourite from the No. 1 barrier was the Colin Brown-trained Fifty Five Reborn.
Fifty Five Reborn was sent straight to the front by Maddison Brown, while Hall restrained Eighteen Carat, who settled down in eleventh position. With $34 chance Miss Limelight charging forward, out wide, from the No. 9 barrier and applying pressure on Fifty Five Reborn, the lead time was an extremely fast 34.7sec.
When the pace slackened a bit Hall seized the initiative and sent Eighteen Carat forward from the rear with a fast three-wide burst with 1200m to travel. Eighteen Carat had a brief breather in the back straight when she moved to the one-wide line before Hall again switched her three wide. She fought on determinedly and got up in the final stride to beat Fifty Five Reborn by a head, rating 1.55.7 over the 2130m journey.
Bettor Get It On ($4.60) fought on grandly to be third after racing in the breeze and finishing just ahead of her stablemate Platinum Sparkle ($9) who trailed the pacemaker throughout and ran on along the inside. The Amber Hare ($3) was an unlucky sixth. She enjoyed the one-out, one-back passage but was hopelessly blocked for a clear run in the final lap.
“I went off early because I wanted to get up there,” said Hall. “I hadn’t done much chasing, while the others had gone hard. I wanted to make sure I got up there early to try to get in front of The Amber Hare, the one runner I was really worried about.
“I thought if The Amber hare had got out, I couldn’t stop her. When I got up there, I was driving to beat the Amber Hare. If the leaders were going any better, I would’ve had to get going after them. I pulled back a length on the home turn just to hold The Amber hare in. If she had got out, she probably would’ve got over me. I had to take the punt.”
The 33-year-old Young, who now has won one Group 1 event, five Group two races and two at Group 3 level, has won 104 races this season.
“She was a silly price tonight because she’s probably proven to be the best mare in the State,” he said. “She just needed a bit of luck, and she got it. She is now going to the paddock; she’s tired and she has been tired for a few weeks. She has a big heart, and that carried her through.”