Isabell says Addictive Habit had a "bad check" on top of the straight from Pussy O'Reilly at the Makfi challenge which cost their horse a length that he was always going to struggle to make ground on in a classy field.
Favourite Kawi is a "very good horse but so is ours".
Says Graham: "It all depends on the running, really, because even the good horses get beaten occasionally.
"He's got a bad draw [barrier No 11] and we haven't got a good one [barrier No 1] ... but it's better than being on the outside," he says but remains adamant Addictive Habit will give a good account of himself.
"He always has even when he's finished at the back of the field. We have been satisfied that he has run because of the circumstances of a race."
Isabell's delighted with the gelding because the couple didn't expect him to be as good as he is.
"He has a wonderful temperament. Nothing fazes him and he has a very good trainer," she says of Somervell, who arrived with the gelding yesterday afternoon.
Last November Addictive Habit won the group 2 Coupland's Bakeries Mile at Riccarton over 1600m. He won a listed $100,000 race in Queensland in June this year and was third in an ordinary race there, too.
"He's got it all right. He's like Rough Habit, his uncle, and has a will to win. He never gives in."
Spratt, Isabell says, is dedicated and diligently does her homework before races.
In fact, the breeder suspects Addictive Habit thrives more when a female jockey presides.
"I think he might go better with girl riders, quite frankly.
"Danielle Johnson rode a good ride on him in Christchurch [Coupland's Bakeries Mile] and Sam won a race on him in Auckland and she won on him again on the [group 2] Foxbridge Plate the other day [last month]," she says of Spratt who had to be content with fourth at the opening race, the Makfi Challenge Stakes, of the spring carnival here a fortnight ago.
"I think it's good to have a jockey who is used to the horse so that's my opinion."
In 2009 the Roddicks went to Sir Patrick Hogan who bred the gelding's sire, Colombia.
Colombia was sold for $1.25 million but got hurt racing in Melbourne.
"We decided his breeding and our mare [Chasing the Habit] would be very good for offsprings so we're absolutely thrilled and lucky to have Addictive Habit," she says.
It still disappoints Isabell that Chasing the Habit died while foaling a couple of years ago.
"That was really quite heart-wrenching because she was a very good mare and every horse she's foaled has won, so this one [Addictive Habit] is going to be the best of those ones."
Another blow followed when Addictive Habit's half-sister, Change of Habit, had a bad attack of colic and the couple couldn't rescue her.
"That strain of Habit has almost disappeared now."
After today's race Somervell will contemplate taking the gelding to a couple of spring races in Melbourne but failing that Coupland's Mile in Christchurch will beckon again.
"A top three or four will be good, as long as he's running home [in Hastings]."
Addictive Habit has yielded $467,390 for co-owners the Roddicks, Graham's sister, Anne and her husband, Colin Scott, Hayden and Leone Nicholas, Bill O'Brien and Keith and Meryl Treadaway.
Offering a winning percentage of 27.7, the gelding has chalked up nine wins, eight runners-up and two thirds from 33 starts.
His stakes career is three wins and four seconds from 17 starts.
