Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
THE FILLY MICHELKA and ROYAL EXPEDITION ran out convincing winners of the $400,000 co-features, the Hot Line and Sir Howard Stakes for native bred three-year-olds, both over 1200 metres at Caymanas Park yesterday.
In the Hot Line Stakes confined to fillies, it turned out to be a family affair. The 6-5 second favourite MICHELKA, ridden by champion jockey Charles Hussey and trained by brother Percy for their mother Ruth, came through early in the straight to beat 4-5 favourite BLACK THATCH in a field of eight.
Later in the afternoon, ROYAL EXPEDITION under in-form jockey Clive Lynch, went wire to wire in the Sir Howard Stakes for colts and geldings, keeping on strongly over the final 200 metres to hold the evens favourite HAPHAZARD at bay by 1 1/4 lengths.
MICHELKA, back from a two-month respite after finishing a well beaten fifth to BLACK THATCH last December, reported a different animal and duly turned the tables on her old rival.
She raced off the early pace in fourth as 25-1 outsider SUNDAY AT ONE led narrowly from DANZIG LA RAE and VOODOO CHANT close up. MICHELKA swooped down on the leaders from the 600-metre mark at which stage BLACK THATCH had it all to do (outpaced).
As they swung into the straight, MICHELKA disposed of the leaders. She raced into a clear lead passing the furlong pole and kept on strongly to win in the fairly good time of 1:13.2, two-fifths of a second faster than that returned by ROYAL EXPEDITION in the Sir Howard 30 minutes later.
MICHELKA is a bay filly by Pat N Jac out of Lakefield, bred by the Orange Valley Estates Limited. Charlie Hussey believes she could develop into a live classic contender:
"This was a learning experience for her", he said of Michelka. "She had a problem when losing to Black Thatch in December, but this was rectified to our satisfaction.
"The plan was to ride her from off the pace today. I believe she can get the Guineas distance if covered up to come the last two.
"She wanted to go through from early in the race. But we don't want to teach her to be a leader so I relaxed her and in the end she responded readily. She's a nice filly with lots of scope. We'll be in a better position to assess her when she runs in the Thornbird Trial Stakes on March 9", explained the four-time champion jockey.
Meanwhile, ROYAL EXPEDITION was early in the lead from HAPHAZARD, RED GENERAL and ROYAL RUN.
He turned for home with HAPHAZARD yapping at his heels and for a stride or two approaching the distance, looked likely to be caught by the Andrew Ramgeet-ridden favourite. But this was not to be, as under a bustling ride from Lynch, ROYAL EXPEDITION held on well to record his second straight win from four starts. ROYAL RUN (8-1) stayed on for third, another 2 1/2 lengths away.
The winner, a bay colt by Royal Minister out of Later Crusader, is owned by Shelter, trained by Desmond Shand and bred by Wayne DaCista.
Lynch rode a second winner on the card in 2-5 favourite SUL EXPRESS in the fifth, as did former champions Ramgeet (Neftenga, Lady Waheeda) and Shane Ellis (Dancing Flames, Meant To Be).
Ellis missed a three-timer when the evens favourite TIME AND AGAIN failed by a neck to catch highly fancied TROPICAL STAR in the fourth race over a mile. And Richard Azan's NEFTENGA (2-1) turned in a good weight defying performance to beat ALEXDIMASTER and 1-2 favourite DR. RSF in the Starter Handicap 1 & 2 straight five race in fine style, his prep for next Saturday's Abe Issa Memorial Cup feature over 1200 metres.
