Nuptse's Win Bears Out Travel Theory
- Wednesday, 28 September 2011 07:15
Promising mare Nuptse proved once again the long-held theory of travelling young horses was a positive when the four-year-old mare made a successful comeback at Doomben.
Nuptse, starting at $3.50 and having her first start since early February, scored a commanding length win over Fuato ($5.50) in Wednesday's Ormiston College Handicap (1040m).
Heavily-backed favourite Found The One ($1.85) blotted her Queensland copybook for the first time, finishing a further two lengths away third.
Trainer Brian Wakefield is a great believer in travelling horses to improve their mental attitude and sent the daughter of Bradbury's Luck to Sydney for the experience and to avoid wet tracks in Brisbane during the summer.
"I sent her to Sydney because we had a lot of wet tracks here at the time but I do believe travelling horses can often improve them," Wakefield said.
In Sydney, Nuptse, who is named after a mountain in the Himalayas, finished an unlucky fourth on debut at Canterbury on January 14 before winning at Warwick Farm on January 26.
Patinack Farm's Found The One ran third to Nuptse in their first Sydney clash and ironically finished in the same position in their second meeting on Wednesday.
Wakefield rated Nuptse good enough for the Brisbane winter carnival but plans to tackle the three-year-old races were aborted when she failed to spell satisfactorily.
"I was going to get her ready for the three-year-old winter races but she didn't spell right so I turned her out again," Wakefield said.
"She's still got a lot of improvement in her and hopefully we'll look at some of the better fillies and mares races later on before the Magic Millions."
Nuptse started her career with Eden Petrie but was transferred to Wakefield before she raced when the former Gold Coast trainer joined Paul Messara as stable foreman.
Meanwhile, connections of Touch Me Knott hope the bloodlines of dual Group One winner Toorak Toff will rise to the top following the mare's breakthrough win in the www.brc.com.au Handicap (2070m).
Apprentice Tim Bell produced a copybook ride on the four-year-old to lead all the way at his first ride back from a careless riding suspension,
The daughter of Untouchable registered her first win in 11 starts and gave trainer Chris Jordan an overdue city win when she downed Maisonblanc by three lengths.
Touch Me Knott is closely related to Toorak Toff who claimed his second Group One in last Saturday's Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield.
Jordan praised Bell for his perfect ride on Touch Me Knott and also jockey Larry Cassidy.
"That was a ten out of ten ride. He rated him perfectly in front," Jordan said.
"But Larry also deserves credit. He has ridden the horse at her last three starts and he said to step her up in distance to 2000 metres and let her lead."
