By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE trainer Mick Kent rekindled a successful association with French jockey Olivier Doleuze to win a major support race on Crown Oaks day last Thursday.
The pair combined to see Kent’s lightly raced three-year old filly Collodi salute in the $100,000 Moet and Chandon race over 1700 metres.
Kent joined fellow local trainer Robbie Griffiths as the only Cranbourne mentors to win a race over the four-day Flemington spring racing carnival and was thrilled with the victory.
The ride in the third race on the card was Doleuze’s only engagement for the day and Kent said he was keen to use the top-rated hoop when he heard he was coming to town to ride Zabeat in the Melbourne Cup.
“He rode for me when I was based in Singapore (and) in fact he rode my first Group 1 winner in Asia, a horse called Jolly Roger, so we do have a great association,” said Kent.
“He would come over and ride for me in Asia for three months at a time when he was based in France and he also rode for me in Macau when I was there.
“When he was going to be here (for the Melbourne Cup) I grabbed him. He’s a great jockey, I wish he was here full time,” he chuckled.
The partnership worked well on Thursday and Kent said he expected Collodi to continue her development and become a top-line galloper.
“She’s a very nice filly and I think she’s going to be an Oaks filly in the autumn,” he said.
“Apart from her last run in the Edward Manifold (Stakes) where she was galloped on, her form has been good and this was the right race for her.”
“The further she goes, the better she goes,” he said.
The feature race of the day, the $750,000 Group 1 Crown Oaks, included two locally trained runners in Eric Musgrove’s Fuji Fantasy and Viognier for Pat Hyland.
While the race was taken out in awesome style by star filly Miss Finland, ridden by Craig Williams, Musgrove was thrilled with his horse’s effort to finish an unlucky fourth and predicted she would continue to improve.
“It was a great run and she just had no luck. She ended up caught back and was the widest runner on the corner and it was a big job to run home so strongly and finish so well,” Musgrove said.
“She’ll have a little break and then we’ll make up our mind where we go next.”
Musgrove said Fuji Fantasy’s tune-up for the Oaks with a fast-finishing fourth in last Saturday’s Wakeful Stakes had helped her and not flattened her in any way for the Oaks.
“Fillies have got to learn to relax and run the journey and I thought she needed the run (on Saturday) to help her do that. I was pleased with the result,” he said.
Stephen Theodore was perplexed after his four-year old gelding Babijczuk, part owned by media personality Rex Hunt, finished second to favourite Theresnothinglycra in the $100,000 Pentax Plate earlier in the program.
While he was pleased with the horse’s fast-finishing run, he said his luck was running low at present and a victory would have opened the way to an interstate assault.
“We’ve taken a tremendous leap from a Class 1 to Oaks day, but gee it would have been nice to win it,” he said.
“We can walk with our heads high. Once he gets into clear galloping room he picks up two to the leaders’ one (and) the sooner we get to 1500 metres and beyond the better.
“There’s a lovely race in Perth that would really suit him over their carnival, but I really wanted to win to pay the way. We’ll have to sit down and have a look at his program now.”
The only other Cranbourne horse to grab a slice of the day’s rich prizemoney on offer was Rodney Douglas’ gelding sender that finished third in the Listed Express Stakes.
