KEY POINTS:
It wasn't just Fiscal Madness Jason Waddell was thinking of after he won yesterday's $125,000 Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie.
Waddell and Fiscal Madness both put in superb performances, but Waddell saved half his praise for narrow runner-up Sir Slick.
"He's scary that horse," said Waddell after staging
a home-straight fight with Sir Slick.
Waddell won the race in two stages - he put Fiscal Madness to sleep in a beautiful trail behind the pacemaking Sir Slick then sprinted past him very quickly when Sir Slick came off the rail as usual on the home turn.
"I wanted to pounce on him quickly and catch him unaware," said Waddell.
Bruce Herd on Sir Slick acknowledged that the fast sprint by the winner was one of the main factors that helped beat Sir Slick under his 60.5kg.
"It's scary when you go past a horse like Sir Slick - you just know he's got the capabilities to fight hard and take it back off you," said Waddell.
Sir Slick refused to yield beyond the neck the winner put on him 375m out.
"When we got inside the 100m I knew Sir Slick had to get tired under his weight," said Waddell.
Waddell has been working hard to resurrect his talented career after a period on the sideline, Yesterday's win was the feature he'd been seeking for to regain the headlines.
He played an important role in the victory in convincing trainer John Sargent to run Fiscal Madness in the 1400m sprint at Te Rapa as a lead-up to yesterday, rather than the 1600m at Ellerslie around the same time.
Fiscal Madness can race fiercely at times and Waddell reasoned that the 1400m would help settle him.
"With a bit more speed on at Te Rapa I knew he'd settle and come into this race with the right mindset.
"Had he run in the Ellerslie mile there would have been no speed on and he'd have been outside the leader pulling his block off."
John Sargent has done a wonderful job with Fiscal Madness who is raced by a syndicate which includes his Canterbury breeder Jo Wilding.
There was an irony in the result - Sir Slick actually helped Fiscal Madness win the race.
Because of his presence in the race, the topweight helped push Fiscal Madness down from the 58kg he carried at his previous start to a much more comfortable 56.5kg.
"If he'd had 58kg this time he obviously wouldn't have been able to sprint as quickly as he did," said Waddell.
Which helps John Sargent decide Fiscal Madness' immediate programme - to follow Sir Slick and get the extremely popular galloper to again ease his handicap back in the group one Thorndon Mile at Trentham.
Sterling Prince went a huge race for third in his first start in a major race and Charliehorse did remarkably well to come from the back of the field for fourth in a lead-trail dominated race.
The leaders ran slick time for the last 600m so that same sectional by Charliehorse, who was back in traffic, must have been special.
He gives every indication of wanting to run 2000m now.