Jiayuguan(No 5)
A signature barnstorming finish has carried Jiayuguan to a third win in her last four starts and seen her take another step towards a long term goal of racing in major staying features in 2016.
Jiayuguan(No 5) scored by a half-head in class record time.
The five-year-old mare added the $A85,000 (RMB386,000) Kiwi Handicap (2400m) to her growing table of victories but it was a very near thing. Cutting it even finer than her last start, when coming from an impossible position in the home straight to win in the last few strides, Jiayuguan again wound up from the tail of the field under the urgings of jockey Tye Angland to rattle down the centre of the Rosehill Gardens’ straight and score by a half-head in class record time.
“Jiayuguan has cut it fine again, I can see that happening in her career because of her racing style but at the moment she is getting there and that is important for what we want to do going forward and for her confidence,” said trainer John Thompson.
Trainer, John Thompson(2nd from the right) with Jockey, Tye Angland(1st from right)
“She is a lovely mare and has taken a little longer to understand that Orbec and Auvray who she came over with from France. I think she will be better still in six months time and that is what this preparation is about, building her up bit by bit to be ready for bigger assignments.”
Thompson is now eyeing off the $A100,000 (RMB450,000) Listed Christmas Cup (2400m) with the chestnut. The summer staying feature is seen as an important stepping stone to higher goals over major racing carnivals next season.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, we will see how she comes through this race first. That was a testing run on a surface that is firmer than she likes but if she comes through it we will look at the Christmas Cup in two weeks time,” the trainer added.
“If we want to look at better races in the autumn or over the Brisbane Winter Carnival then it is important to have built up her prize money and her ratings to get into the better staying events.”
It was fitting for Jiayuguan’s win to come on a day honouring retired champion jockey Jim Cassidy who partnered the club’s former racing star Dissident to win this year’s G1 All-Aged Stakes in Sydney. That performance, rich in Cassidy grit and daring do, was the last G1 win for the champion rider who retired earlier this month.
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