21 Feb 06 - Fighting Fragrance

I went to Caulfield to see FF have what was to be a soft jumpout this morning. Peter Moody told me that his view of this filly, with her light frame, was that she would have showed signs of coming to an end of her campaign already, because she still has some physical maturing to do, yet she just keeps thriving on all the work that has been presented to her at this point. She had obviously ‘tightened up’ in her appearance and Peter is being careful to not overtax her whilst she is only a 2yo.

Given FF was to have a soft jumpout over 600m I was expecting FF to settle in the second half of the six horse field, before being nursed over the 600m. However our filly obviously has a will to race, because although she missed the jump by a neck to half length she cruised up to be second in running before going to the lead with 50m to go and finishing a neck or so in front of the next horse. Peter was obviously happy with the run, but the time wasn’t overly fast and it’s a long way from winning a real race, so it is important to not get too carried away. However let’s just say FF appears to be a very nice horse and all the indicators are very good at this point.

Assuming FF pulls up ok from the run today, Peter is of the view we should go to the trials at Cranbourne next Monday rather than have another jumpout at Caulfield next Tuesday. Regardless of whether FF goes well or not in the trial and we are not tempted to race her this campaign, I have agreed with Peter that she will be transported straight to the paddock once the trial is over before giving her a 6 to 7 week break then begin preparing for her next campaign as all the foundation work has been completed we will be in a position to go to the races with her without overtaxing her.