Hawke's Bay Open
Hastings
To the rhythm and beat of clip-clopping hooves in the stabling area, trainer Shaune Ritchie was lost in thought as he led Artistic around the rustic infrastructure at the Hastings racecourse yesterday.
Was it a nose or a neck?
To Ritchie that hardly seemed relevant in the scheme of things for a group-one winner put through a litmus test to justify her presence on race tracks.
"The margin's never the key factor," said the Cambridge trainer in what was a win or bust situation for Artistic.
Alas, a neck proved to be the difference as jockey Buddy Lammas egged on Gold Cape to surge past Artistic and Matthew Cameron to the finish line of the feature race, the Bay Ford Hawke's Bay Open, yesterday.
Australian brown mare Gold Cape clocked 2m 09.93s while Hell Yeah, with Mark Hills in the saddle, settled for third place a long neck behind Artistic.
"The key factor is how your horse performs against a normal performance," said Ritchie, outlining his criteria that would see if his 4-year-old offspring of Darci Brahma and Artless would be put out to a paddock at The Oaks Stud to be a baby factory.
For the trainer, Artistic was a fraction below her best.
"I'd like to have seen her recapture her winning form today.
"Although beaten narrowly, she hasn't done that.
"We don't have a choice now - take a risk with her in Brisbane or stay home," he said of the owners' ambition to take her to the Brisbane Cup.
For Artistic, there's nothing meeting-wise in New Zealand because it's too wet, but her form of late has been damning - fifth in the group one at Ellerslie and sixth the the Manawatu Breeders Stakes.
"It's a bit of a question mark, I suppose, and a 50-50 call. There are a lot better horses in Australia.
"Having said that I'm sure she'll improve a little bit more. You'd like to see her find a little bit of better form, perhaps, to go there with great confidence."
On the flip side, he felt she had nothing to prove on the race tracks, ability-wise.
What Ritchie said next offered Artistic a glimmer of hope.
"She's a previous group-one winner, so it's a downgrade for her, but she's given the winner about five kilos so I'm hoping that's the reason why she probably didn't beat the other horse today.
"It's one of those owner's calls from here all in.
"She certainly looks like she was feeling okay in the running. She's aged a little bit and she'll probably improve with that run."
Lammas said Gold Cape was a "nice mare", considering he'd carved up the fifth victory on the 6-year-old mare.
"All the way through I've like her because she's a gusty mare, you know."
With 100m to go and early leader Belfast Lad on the inside carrying Mark Sweeney looking a little spent, Lammas realised Artistic kept "clicking in a lot" so he had had the race sewn up.
The jockey stopped short of putting Gold Cape as a group one contender just yet.
Trainer John Wheeler, of New Plymouth, had phoned Lammas from Australia earlier in the day not sure why the 6-year-old progeny of Irish parents Cape Cross and Casting For Gold had a bad race in the last outing at Waikato.
"Good trainers are right for me, and John's the best," Lammas said of Wheeler.