Marlborough Jumps Into $2.7m Japan Spotlight
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 28, 2001
AUSTRALIA'S top jumper Marlborough virtually clinched an invitation to take on the world's best in Japan in April with a shock flat win in the Street Cafe Handicap at Sandown yesterday.
Showing he had recovered from a tendon injury, the eight-year-old, having his first run for 12 months, sprinted quickly over the final stages of the 2128-metre race to grab victory right on the line from Shop Till You Drop.
Veteran trainer Jim Houlahan and managing part-owner Kevin Coughlan were delighted with the performance, not so much because of the juicy odds of $13 and prizemoney of $16,250, but because it showed that Marlborough was finally over an injury that threatened to end his career.
Coughlan said the horse had yet to receive an invitation to race in the$2.7 million Grand Jump at Nakiyama but was inoculated after yesterday's race. Invitations are expected to be issued in the next few weeks, as the lead-up race in Japan is on March 24. The Grand Jump is on April 15 over 4250-metres.
In eight starts over jumps, Marlborough has won seven, including wins in the Grand National Hurdle and Hiskens Steeplechase.
A beaming Houlahan, who said Marlborough ``had a few miles in his legs" since coming back into work, only decided to run the gelding following showers on Friday, which resulted in the track being downgraded to slow.
"It's great to see him come back and do that," said Houlahan, who planned Marlborough's recovery to coincide with the big Japanese race. Yesterday's lacklustre Sandown meeting, which followed two feature race days at Moonee Valley and Caulfield, did little to lower the spirits of punters, who pulled off a sizeable plunge when Kaaptive Bird won the Black Shoes Handicap (1200m).
The five-year-old mare, having only her fifth start for Cranbourne trainer Greg Eurell after being trained in Tasmania, was backed from $7.50 to start at $4.25 with bookmakers.
After settling behind the speed, Kaaptive Bird overhauled the $4.00 favorite Ebony Beauty near the line to score narrowly.
Eurell said later that the grey mare, who had now had four runs this campaign for three wins, had shown her owners plenty of ability as a young horse in Tasmania, but she had not lived up to her promise.
"They (the owners) thought she might have been an Oaks filly early on but she just tries too hard in her work to be trained for long distances," Eurell said.
Kaaptive Bird was the first leg of a winning double for jockey Peter Mertens, who also won the Principality Handicap on the Bart Cummings-trained Coup De Maitre.
Mertens rode both winners perfectly and is now seventh on the jockeys' list with 23 city wins.
Darren Gauci also scored a winning double with two very different rides. His first winner, Best Intentions, came from near last and his second, Centrev, trained by John Hawkes, led throughout.
© 2001 The Sunday Age
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