Recap by phillip woo

Firming favourite After Me was up vying for the lead on the fence with Great Son, moved to the front rounding the final bend and kept on gamely to score at his 15th start. La Bomba got up 50m out for second following a box-seat run. It was his best run to date but he's still lightly-raced and open to improvement. Royal Chocolate got up in the last stride for third after a one-out, one-back run from a tricky gate. Specked late Great Son grudgingly gave way over the last 100m after working hard to lead one off the fence 750m out from a wide gate. It was a typical run by Show Mission, who ran on late near the inside after a patient ride fourth from the back. The pace did go against him. Raichu ran on without menacing near the outside after getting further back than normal travelling behind midfield. Exponent came up flat in midfield. It was another disappointing run after coming home second best in his first two runs this term.

Racing Incident Report

Race Two: (116) - SIR JOHN HANDICAP - Class 5 - 1000Meters

A Domeyer (ROYAL CHOCOLATE) was fined $2,000 for presenting himself to weight out for this race in the incorrect colours.

After being loaded into the barriers, BLISSFUL EIGHT reared on a number of occasions and subsequently finished tailed out.

A veterinary inspection of BLISSFUL EIGHT immediately following the race did not show any significant findings, however, the horse was unable to be scoped due to being fractious.

Both the barrier manners and performance of BLISSFUL EIGHT were considered unacceptable.

As this was the third occasion in recent race starts that the horse had finished tailed out, the Stewards ruled that BLISSFUL EIGHT must undertake a series of consecutive satisfactory barrier trials and be subjected to an official veterinary examination prior to being permitted to race again.

As the start was effected, WHISTLE UP lifted its front feet off the ground and consequently began only fairly.

AFTER ME shifted out at the start and hampered LA BOMBA which began only fairly.

From a wide barrier, CARRY TO WIN was shifted across behind runners in the early stages.

After the 800 Metres, SUPER FUN was left racing wide and without cover.

Making the turn at the 600 Metres, WHISTLE UP became unbalanced when racing tight inside EXPONENTS.

After this, WHISTLE UP continued to race tight inside EXPONENTS which got its head on the side and lay in away from SUPER FUN.

Approaching the 100 Metres, SUPER FUN, which was giving ground, momentarily raced in restricted room between EXPONENTS and RAICHU.

When questioned, Mr P F Yiu, the trainer of AFTER ME, stated that the horse was only having its third start for his stable tonight.

He said at its last start over 1200 Metres at Happy Valley, the horse drew barrier 9 and he felt that too much use of the horse would have to be made to obtain a forward position and therefore he instructed the rider to steady AFTER ME in the early stages and obtain inside runs if possible.

He said when AFTER ME drew barrier 1 for this event, he felt that the horse would show sufficient speed to be able to take advantage of the inside barrier and accordingly he instructed the jockey to be positive on AFTER ME and take up as forward a positon as possible.

A veterinary inspection of WHISTLE UP immediately following the race did not show any significant findings.

AFTER ME and LA BOMBA were sent for sampling.