Stipendiary Steward's Report 

Stipendiary Stewards: N Goodwin, B Bateup, M Barnsley

Horses Swabbed: Needled

Race Five:  THE ITALIAN JOB (K Smith) and GANDYBOY (V Johnston) were both slow away. 

Race Reports

Albert: 

Hi Twigsters,

It was another average effort from Twiggy on Thursday and she may have one chance at the most left.

She jumped ok, but settled back last for most of the journey, improved a little coming to the turn, passed one and whacked away for 6th.

Kane Smith who rode her said she just switches on and off the entire race and when she is on, she feels good and when she is off, she is flat. He recommended giving her one more start with blinkers on to
see if it will keep her switched on and we could look at racing her handier. I asked him flatly whether he thought she was worth giving another go and he said, yes, make the changes and try it.

Personally I think we have given her just about every chance. I always wanted the syndicate to enjoy racing their horse, have excitement and hopefully get a few dollars back. I don't want people to continually see their horse perform poorly, because it is disheartening and turns you off.

We have two real choices now.

The first option is to retire her and try and sell her to a good home. Realistically we won't get a lot for her, but I will do my best. If we can't sell her the next best thing is to find a good home for her.

The second option is to give her one more start in the next 10 days and make the changes. Put the blinkers on, be a little handier and try something different. This would be her last chance to do something for herself and her owners.

Personally, I could go either way, but because she is up, I am leaning towards option 2. This is up to the syndicate to decide though, so please let me know your thoughts over the next few days. I will be away until Thursday so may not be able respond to any questions until then.

There is a bit of money in the syndicate account to distribute, which when we do retire her, I will organise. Naturally I would love to have you involved in another horse and if we retire her, I will give you options. I want you all to race a champion, it just may be that Twiggy isn't going to be that champion for us.

Kind regards

Albert

Another disappointing run. She looked well and from the pictures on the TV appeared a little finer than on previous occasions. The reduction in the field to seven only went to make her final placing of 6th look better than it actually was. She broke well enough, although she quickly found her usual place at the back of the field, she appeared relaxed and although she dropped a couple of lengths from the pack, there was no real pace on and as they came into the turn she was already receiving encouragement from Kane. After passing one, she was pulled out wide to make a run for home and failed to pick up, just keeping pace with the three ahead.

To be honest with a fairly high knee action the cut in the ground (due to a few showers prior to the race) should have helped her more than others, the distance wasn't the issue in my opinion, with the dead conditions playing more into her hands.  This was the third race of her 4 year old campaign (and we are already halfway though its ninth month) and opportunities will begin to run out. This syndicate was pitched to run for three seasons (2,3,4 year campaigns), so some serious decisions are required, otherwise I feel we will continue to throw good money after bad.

Summary: Trailed, passed one, never near.