Racing: Timely success by Obsession puts spring in horseman's step

Obsession in the hands of jockey Michael Coleman. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Obsession was on a last chance when she won Saturday's $100,000 NRM Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes at Pukekohe.

Her last chance to prove she was not one of those mares who simply cannot find her best form in the spring.

Breeding cycle hormone levels prevent some mares from reaching optimum racetrack performance before the end of each year.

Trainer Frank Ritchie and ownership manager Rick Williams were starting to believe Obsession was one of them.

"Her best form up to this point has been in the autumn, but it might have been circumstantial," Ritchie was happy to concede after this notable victory.

"As a 2-year-old she showed me nothing in the spring, but I mainly put that down to immaturity.

"And last spring she had a setback that stopped her."

Ritchie and Williams had detected small niggling issues with attitude in Obsession's last couple of starts.

"Some of it might have to do with her not enjoying being tightened up in races," said Williams.

Matt Cameron confirmed that after guiding Obsession to a dominating victory on Saturday.

"She got squeezed up early and pulled herself out of it then on the home bend I was following Katie Lee and she had horses over her, so I pulled her out into the open."

Pukekohe provides plenty of time to do that and Obsession was relentless in the closing stages when it looked as though the filly Cool Storm and Pennacchio were going to fight out the finish.

Cool Storm got rid of Pennacchio by ducking out into her path and forcing the other mare to clip her heels.

How Pennacchio managed to retain her feet was little short of a miracle.

Even though Obsession got to Cool Storm late she was always going to pick her up.

Ritchie said Obsession's lack of enthusiasm for having horses around her even extends to trackwork.

"She needs to do a bit in training because although she's not big, she's a good eater and carries a bit of condition.

"But when you put another horse with her on the track to help to make her work, she'll put her ears back.

"She's more enthusiastic on her own."

Obsession's next start will be in the $85,000 Cal Isuzu Stakes at Te Rapa on December 11.

"Beyond that, we'll probably look at the big mile races at Ellerslie and Trentham. The problem with those being that if her forms keeps going she might end up a fraction high in the weights because she's not overly big."

The group one Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha in the autumn is an obvious target.

Obsession finished a good third in that earlier this year without a lot of luck late in the race.

A protest was lodged by the connections of fifth-placed Pennacchio against Cool Storm, one which under the old rules would have certainly been successful.

The new protest rule requires the connections of the horse interfered with to prove it would have beaten home the horse who caused the interference.

Pennacchio copped the bad check exactly five strides from the finish, which would not have given her time to pick up the one length she was behind Cool Storm.

Cool Storm appeared to be holding Pennacchio to that one length in the stride before being checked.

Cool Storm's rider Mark Du Plessis was not charged, because it was deemed that the filly had ducked outwards too quickly for the interference to have been preventable.

Earlier in the home run, Du Plessis had switched his whip from his right hand to the left to keep the filly on a straight path.

Italian Princess will go into the Railway Stakes at Ellerslie on New Year's Day without another race.

Majority owner and trainer Graham Richardson decided that yesterday after considering what winning the Concorde at Avondale might mean to the high-class emerging sprinter.

Italian Princess showed again what she might be capable of in winning Pukekohe's sprint on Saturday when the day was far from favouring speed horses.

Richardson knew that when his juvenile Miss Upstart came from what looked an impossible position to win the babies' race earlier on the programme.

It has been a while since there has been a more appropriately-named youngster.

Miss Upstart is so small, Richardson says she can barely look over the top of the door of her box at home.

The little filly is a classic example of how attitude is every bit as important, if not more important, than class in thoroughbreds.

When she got balanced up early in the home straight at the back of the field she knuckled down like a little sewing machine and pounded away until she drove past every horse in front.

This wasn't "watch my style", this was "watch me beat this mob".

It's going to win Miss Upstart a lot more races.

Richardson has had to walk a tightrope with Italian Princess in getting her into the Railway on the lightest possible weight, but ensuring she made the field.

It's early days, but it appears he might have judged it just right.

The bob of the heads went his way.

David Walsh on Sandblaster lodged a challenge full of determination and Sandblaster had his nose in front half a stride before the finish line and half a stride afterwards.

For Richardson's Railway hopes, Italian Princess had hers in front right where it mattered.

BREEDERS STAKES

* Obsession proved she is an "anytime" mare with her dominating victory.

* There had been suggestions spring was not her time.

* Runner-up Cool Storm badly checked Pennacchio, but under the new interference rule held her placing.