THE 2007 Style Group Jersey Derby produced a surprise winner in the Joan Le Brocq trained and Vince Slattery ridden 7/1 shot Carr Hall.
The Le Brocq trained four-year-old’s chances had been dismissed by the pundits in the pre race build up due to the fact that he would have been receiving lumps of weight had the race been a handicap.
However, what they had not taken into consideration was that three of the supposed leading players in this year’s renewal of the Jersey Race Club’s feature race of the season namely Khuzdar, and previous winners of the race Crossways and Off Minor, had not enjoyed uninterrupted preparations leading up to the race while pre race favourite and triple crown seeking Tevere had not been overly impressive when winning the Champion Hurdle at the previous meeting.
Meanwhile the young pretender Carr Hall was coming into the race at the top of his form off the back of a win two weeks ago.
As the tapes went up the eventual winner was settled at the back of the field with Tevere being persuaded to make the early running by his rider Emmett Stack with rank outsider Blue Savanna keeping him company for the first half of the race at a moderate pace.
Favourite backers knew that their selection was in trouble as firstly Crossways and then Off Minor passed the early leader turning for home, but as the field approached the furlong marker the eventual winner, who had made stealthy headway on the outside, was produced by Slattery and quickly surged past his rivals and although tying up in the final strides he was able to hold off the renewed challenge from the veteran Off Minor to win by half a length with Khuzdar six lengths back in third.
Obviously this was one in the eye for form book students but the winning jockey probably best summed up the reasons behind this surprise win explaining that the pace of the race had suited his mount better than the better fancied established stayers as the four-year-old had been able to quicken off the pace.
The winning trainer and jockey combination have had to wait eight years since their previous success in this race when Wild Rita took the honours in 1999, this was also journeyman jockey Slattery’s first win at the local track this season, what a way to get off the mark! The supporting races on the afternoon’s card produced a treble for trainer Stephen Arthur and Jockey Tony Procter, the first leg coming in the Conditional Maiden Hurdle, as Last Eclipse led from pillar to post and had the race won over three furlongs from home, eventually winning by a distance from Tony Tie with Master Rattle eight lengths back in third.
While connections will be delighted by the ease of their win the form of the race can be ignored as the runner up produced a number of jumping errors which ruined his chances of making any meaningful challenge and the third place Master Rattle would probably only get this trip in a bus! The combination’s second winner of the afternoon came in the Investec Handicap over five furlongs, interestingly Procter adopted totally different tactics settling the normally trail blasting grey Highland Flight in the middle of the field early on, leaving the pace setting to stablemate Waking Dream.
These new tactics worked like a dream as the nine-year-old mare sliced through the field in the last furlong to win by three quarters of a length from Top Pursuit with High Voltage running his best race to date half a length back in third.
Hard luck story of the race seemed to be I’m Aimee who lost five lengths at the start and was stopped twice when making her effort at the business end of the race, with more luck in running she appears to be a sure fire winner before the season ends.
Arthur and Procter had their third winner of the afternoon when top weight Danehill Dazzler won The Animal Health Trust 10th Anniversary Handicap.
The five-year-old saw off the challenge of Kristinor who is in the form of his life by two lengths, with early leader Groomsman the same distance back in third.
Not for the first time this season a jockey putting up overweight was probably the difference between winning and losing as Kristinor carried four pounds above his allotted weight.
Final race of the afternoon saw another facile pillar to post victory as favourite Koka Fast never saw a rival, winning by three lengths from Red River Rock with Snow Lark back in third.
Next meeting is on Sunday 12 August and is the Jersey Race Club’s annual Ladies Day meeting.
First race 2.30 pm.
