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After the disappointment of the last run over 1600m, we dropped Amber back over the 1300m. This campaign was more about giving her a chance to enjoy racing by giving her a light prep, and only in sprints up to the mile. We wanted to boost her confidence, and let her build strength without a lot of racing. We still had a question regarding her ability to win over the sprints, as she'd proven in the Oaks as a 3yo that she had ample ability over distance.
We wanted to continue letting her jump and then take a position just off the speed and keep her coming from behind as she was doing. She was sent out a hot fav at $1.8. She jumped beautifully again and by the 800m was camped on the fence one back. The caller, David Wrensted, nailed it when he said "I hope it's not a repeat of last start" when it was obvious she needed an opening to be able to get through. All looked hopeless until the 300m when Roy pushed through the tiring horse outside him, and around the leader who itself laid out for the final 200m. It was a desperate piece of riding from McKay, but he just got up in the final stride. It landed him in the stewards room and he copped a 3 week suspension. See here the result. We were happy with the win, but we were lucky to get the win but it cost us Roy. As were to discover, this went on to play a further part later on in the preparation.
After the brilliant 1UP win, we set Amber for a 1600m race at Geraldton. She jumped like a shot, positioned well...then got caught as other horses peeled wide at the corner her move came too late. She got blocked behind a wall of horses, with a split coming late...but too late for her. She finished on a game 4th. Click here for race results.
After a nice prep, Amber stepped into her first trial on 20th Jan. She won the trial in nice form. She then stepped out in her first race in a CL5 over 1300m with Roy McKay on board. We were very confident going into the race, especially after the solid trial and her further improvement heading into the race. We backed her accordingly.
She jumped well, positioned perfectly and Roy hit the front coming around the bend. She came away a comfortable 2 1/4 length winner.
It was ladies day out, so further to the thrill of nailing the win was the enjoyment on track with part-owner Jeanette Day out with a group of jolly good friends. They celebrated back at the stables with champagne.
We sent Amber straight to the paddock after the purchase, as she had a very tough 3YO campaign with no real time off. We put her into the care of a great friend of Clive in Kevin Lever. She came back into Geraldton looking magnificent. On arrival we toasted her in with Champagne and she settled into her new country surroundings.
Clive and I went down to the dispersal sales to take a look at a few that caught our eye in the book. Some very nice sire lines with the likes of Giant's Causeway were in the mix. We looked over about 30 horses, but drew a line through most and figured the rest would go well above my cap. We were surprised to see Amber in the sale, as she did not appear in the first catalog. I'd seen her race at Geraldton as a youngster and was impressed by her grit in the WA Oaks where she ran a fighting third as the leader.
We took a good look at her and had a talk with the current owners, who also own the promising Mansion House. They told us a story that we believed, so I decided to purchase her. We were a little worried as to why she was leaving the stable of Lyndsay Smith and only time would tell if she had any problems that we weren't been told about.
