Cole Diesel going out for spell after cup win

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 26

Cole Diesel going out for spell after cup win

NZPA Sydney The Queensland trainer, Greg Mance, has rejected the temptation of staying on with Cole Diesel for further Melbourne spring carnival riches after the gelding’s tremendous win in the sAustl million Caulfield Cup on Saturday. Cole Diesel swept wide around the field and turned on another of the blistering finishes which have likened him to the great Bernborough, to score by a long neck from Nayrizi, with New Zealander The Phantom threequarters of a length back, third. Mance, a former shoe manufacturer who has been training full-time for only four years, said Cole Diesel had had a hectic season.

“He will now go for a

spell in Queensland and miss both the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup,” he said. Cole Diesel would be prepared for the sAustl million Doncaster Handicap (1600 m at Randwick next autumn.

Mance paid only sAustl 3,000 for Cole Diesel, a son of the American sire, Brigand, at the Melbourne yearling sales and races mm in a family syndicate. Cole Diesel, which had burst into cup calculations with his Elders Mile win at Caulfield the previous week-end, has now earned $Au5t1,079,250 in prizemoney. Although some pundits thought Cole Diesel would not make a stayer, Mance never had any doubts the four-year-old grey would

go the 2400 m. “He had no luck in the Queensland Derby during the winter and he passed about six horses in the straight after being badly held up,” he said. Not only did he run the trip, but he was only 0.1 of a second outside the course record (2:27.1), jointly held by past cup winners Sobar (1972) and Silver Bounty (1981).

But a tactical decision by the Gold Coast-based jockey, Michael Kerr, played a key part in the win.

“I saw a scrimmage approaching the turn and there was no way I could get through, so I went around the field,” Kerr said.

The Caulfield Cup lived up to its reputation as a rough-house event and

many jockeys returned with bad luck stories.

Particularly unfortunate were the favourite, Nayrizi, and his rider, Greg Hall.

Not only was Nayrizi bailed up on the fence until finding a gap to make a run half-way down the home straight, but he was cut on his offhind leg when galloped on.

Later, Hall was suspended by stewards for careless riding until November 9.

This means missing the sAustl.B million Melbourne Cup, for which Nayrizi was quoted a 4-1 favourite immediately after the Caulfield Cup. But Hall foreshadowed an appeal against the suspension over an incident which caused Tawrrific,

Research and Hunter to be checked. New Zealand jockey Grant Cooksley had no excuses for The Phantom, which ran on strongly to the line.

Woodville trainer Murray Baker was pleased with The Phantom’s performance. “It was an honest run for an immature horse,” he said. “However, I don’t know whether he’ll get 3200 m.”

Despite Baker’s reservations about The Phantom coping with the Melbourne Cup distance, Melbourne bookmakers firmed his odds from 20-1 to 15-1. The other New Zealand visitor, Chigarow, was handily placed at the home turn, but faded to beat only two home.