Erharts celebrate after Top Tone scores upset win at Doomben

IT WAS a feel-good story all round when Top Tone overcame a wide barrier to cause a big boilover in the final event at Doomben on Saturday.

Top Tone on its way to scoring an upset win at Doomben on Saturday. Picture: Natasha Wood, Trackside Photography

IT was a feel-good story all round when Top Tone overcame a wide barrier to cause a big boilover in the final event at Doomben on Saturday.

Top Tone is prepared by Lorraine Erhart, who credited her “right-hand man”, husband Tony, in landing the win. “He was yelling about as good as I was,” Lorraine said of her husband, who stood nearby with a beaming smile.

Erhart, one of the state’s longest-serving jockeys, has not ridden since December, but works closely with his wife in the running of their Eagle Farm stable.

The win was also notable for being Luke Tarrant’s first Saturday city winner since his return from disqualification.

“I’m starting to feel like I am riding them better,” Tarrant said. “It’s all coming back to me.”

TECHNICAL LIABILITY: Jim Byrne looked ready to explode in Saturday’s Hi Harry-Balboa Rocks protest hearing. After Jeff Lloyd stated the case for the objection to be upheld, Byrne began his rebuttal when the stewards’ room turned into a music auditorium. First a mobile phone belonging to the stewards went off, stopping Byrne in his tracks, then a walkie-talkie chimed in before David Kelly’s stable representative had a rock anthem start belting out on his mobile, which took him some time to find. “Every time I got a train of thought I had to stop,” Byrne lamented. Fortunately stewards saw it his way and deemed the bump to Balboa Rocks was attributable to both horses and they dismissed the protest.

TEN OUT OF 10: Josh Oliver earned high praise for his winning ride on the heavily backed Emerald City in the staying event. One wrong move from the 3kg claimer and it would have been a different result. “By gee that was a good ride,” stable representative Ken Pope said. It was a far cry from the same track three weeks ago when Oliver and fellow apprentice Bridget Grylls (also a winner yesterday) earned the ire of stewards and were subsequently handed one-month suspensions. Both have appealed. Oliver has engaged the services of Jim Murdoch to state his case, which is now before QRIC’s internal review system.

CENTIMETRE PERFECT: Justin Stanley made the most of a rare chance in town when timing Sporting Page’s run to perfection in the Open Flying. Stanley was Queensland’s champion apprentice in 1999-2000 but his career has been stalled by injuries and he now rides mostly on the provincial circuit. “I can more than hold my own against these city boys. It’s just a matter of getting on one good enough,” he said.

LIGHTNING STRIKES THRICE: Bloodstock agent James Harron’s hot streak shows no signs of abating. Breeders’ Plate winner Khan carried the same colours as last year’s winner Capitalist. Both were purchased by Harron, with Khan costing $260,000 out of the draft of Queensland’s Glenlogan Park Stud. Harron also had a hand in the purchase of 2014 Breeders’ winner Vancouver, so he has completed a hat-trick. Now Khan gets the opportunity in trying to emulate that duo in claiming the Golden Slipper. It was a great start to the new season of juvenile racing for Glenlogan Park, whose sire Real Saga provided the first Brisbane winner, Real Princess.

Young hopefuls make right choice

LOYALTIES to champs Buffering and Chautauqua aside, how good was it to see three-year-old Extreme Choice take on the older horses and come up trumps in Friday’s Moir Stakes?

Unfortunately, it does not happen as often now as it did previously.

Three-year-olds don’t have to take on older horses to secure their value because they have had races elevated to Group 1 status in the safety of their own age group.

So rather than Astern and Exosphere venturing south to have a crack at the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, they can land the Group 1 trophy in a Golden Rose.

Star colt Extreme Choice produced a sizzling finishing burst to win the Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley on Friday night. Picture: Colleen Petch

Some of the most memorable winners of the Caulfield 1400m feature were three-year-olds such as Our Maizcay, Encosta De Lago, Testa Rossa and Exceed And Excel.

Similarly, in Melbourne Cup week the Coolmore Stud Stakes — like the Golden Rose — has become a great race in its own right, but that has come at the expense of three-year-olds tackling older sprinters in the Salinger-Darley, races where untapped three-year-olds such as Fastnet Rock, Choisir, Al Mansour and Gold Brose previously came of age.

Hopefully Extreme Choice (below) sparks a turnaround, after three-year-olds landed only three Group 1 WFA winners in the previous two seasons.

Princess tough enough for Magic Millions

LIAM Birchley again showed why he is one of the shrewdest conditioners of two-year-olds in the state when Real Princess backed up from her debut at Toowoomba last week to claim Brisbane’s opening race of the juvenile season on Saturday.

It was the first leg of a winning double for Birchley after the heavily backed Pepperano bolted in to claim the Class 3 Plate.

Real Princess (pictured) was one of two runners that had race experience and that made all the difference as she held off Dream Kisses (who raced wide off a tricky draw) and Royal Myth (who recovered after buck jumping for two strides at the start).

“Race experience makes a huge difference,” Birchley said. “She’s probably not the best filly in that race, but the experience she’s had, plus the toughness that a race brings was a big help.”

Birchley said Real Princess would go for an immediate spell before being prepared for the Magic Millions, a race that has taunted him for a long time.

“You could say I’m overdue,” he said. “At least that’s probably enough to have her qualified now, which makes our task easier. Qualifying early for the Magic Millions is a huge advantage. It gives you the advantage of running in the races you want in the lead-up.”

Originally published as Erharts celebrate after Top Tone scores upset win at Doomben