Platinum Racing

If you didn't happen to stay up last night to watch the titanic struggle between So You Think and Workforce in last night's Gr 1 Coral Eclipse Stakes from Sandown in the UK - you missed one heck of a horse race.

These two great horses really turned it on and the huge crowd in the UK roared to a man as they singled out from the field two furlongs from home when Ryan Moore hit the "go" button on Workforce and raced last year's Epsom Derby and Arc winner two lengths clear.

Seamie Heffernan rode So You Think and absolute blinder, staying in Workforce's slipstream throughout and followed Workforce through when he took the lead from his pacemaker Confront at the half mile.

Just inside the two furlong pole it appeared as though Workforce may be holding So You Think, but our champ knuckled down like the great horse he is and he wore Workforce down to win by a half length going away on the lane.

It was a race to savour and one can only hope they meet again in the Arc later this year.

CENTABEEL WINS:

Platinum Racing only sold Centabeel three weeks back to Bill Ponsonby, our minor partner in the horse, and it was great to see him record a first up win for Bill as his solo owner when he won the class 1 race at Mudgee this afternoon for trainer Bob Turton and apprentice Daniel Pitomac.

Bill has had an unswerving faith in Centabeel and when I decided to offer the horse for sale Bill stepped up and bought us out.

Today was the horse's second win - and both have come on the Mudgee track. He was ridden a treat by Pitomac who jumped the horse away well from the inside gate and followed the leader to the turn.

He got a run between the two leaders in the final 100 metres and sprinted well to get up and win by a short half head - the same margin he won his maiden by. The horse has always demonstrated far more ability than he has shown on raceday and hopefully Bob can get him to race consistently well.

Oddly enough I recall Bob from our days as kids at Randwick when Bob was riding for trainer Doug Lonsdale and I was spending a period of my apprenticeship with the late Pat Murray.

UNBELIEVABLE STRIKE RATE:

I am not one for following jockey's or trainer's strike rates. But today's treble at Hobart has kept champion Tasmanian jockey Brendon McCoull's strike rate for the entire season out there in the stratosphere.

He has now ridden 94 winners for the season with a strike rate of just over 24%! Riding 94 winners a year in Tassie is no mean feat when they mostly have one meeting a week and that effort is remarkable.

Stephen Maskiell also rode a treble at Hobart today.

HUGHIE'S RUN CONTINUES:

Aussie Jockey Hugh Bowman, who is considering riding in a jumps race at Newton Abbott later this week, won the feature race at Salisbury last night for trainer Mick Channon on board his old warhorse Halicarnassus.

It was Bowman's fourth winner this stint in the UK. He also rode two seconds on the card. Halicarnassus has been a good handicapper for the Channon yard and will go to Turkey for his final race start - after which he will remain there as a stallion.

Bowman's foray into jumps riding is not a new phenomena for top class jockeys with Irish legend Johnny Murtagh having ridden over the jumps as well and having won a Gr 1 over the sticks.

MOORE ADDS SPICE TO PREMIERSHIP:

Up until Friday - Tony Cruz looked home and hosed in the Hong Kong trainer's premiership. But he drew a blank on Friday while John Moore landed a winning treble and with only two meetings remaining for the season Moore is now just three wins behind Cruz.

Cruz is aiming to have six runners at Happy Valley on Wednesday night while Moore is likely to have only four competing on the city circuit. Next Sunday at Shatin they are both likely to pull out all stops with runners on the last day.

ORDINARY RUN FOR THE AUSSIES:

Aussie jockeys are well down the ladder at this point of the racing season in Mauritius. Mark Pegus has landed 9 winners, while Michael Cahill has won 5 and Danny Craven just four winners.

South African jockey, the diminutive Johnny Geroudis leads the table on 21 wins. Gilbert Rousset has a good lead in the trainer's race on 25 wins.

He nad Geroudis combined for a double at yesterday's Champ Del Mar meeting.

AROUND THE COUNTRY:

Gai Waterhouse cast-off Certain Magic won the $30K Marble Bar Cup in WA yesterday. The seven year old, ridden by P. Black, started at $5.

Jockey Shohei Kaya has certainly seen most of Australia. The Japanese jockey served his apprenticeship in north-western NSW, before moving to Tasmania for a few seasons. He turned up yesterday at Cairns yesterday - and rode a winnng double.

Former South African jockey Wanderson D'Avile also rode at Cairns and landed a winner.

Two other widely travelled jockeys found their way to Broome in WA yesterday - Stephen Ridler and Nathan Stanley - both riding a winner.

Ridler, a former Victorian who has ridden in Perth, the NT and points beyond is getting into the veteran class and Nathan, younger brother of the recently retired Brent Stanley has also ridden all over the country.