Incandescent claims stakes honours at Ellerslie

Incandescent (NZ) (Per Incanto) bookended his two-year-old season with winning results for his army of owners after claiming top honours in the Listed Cloudsoft Accounting Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie on Saturday.

Raced by MyRacehorse and Ridgeport Holdings, the son of Per Incanto started his career in winning fashion when victorious over 1100m at Ellerslie in November, and he followed that with a series of minor placings, including a runner-up performance behind stablemate Excite (Wootton Bassett) in the Listed Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes (1400m) at Te Rapa a fortnight ago.

The Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained pair were the favoured runners heading into Saturday’s contest, with a Queensland campaign on the line for Excite, and while his conditioners were rapt with him in the lead-up this week, a temperature spike on race morning led to his late scratching.

“We take temperatures on race morning and to our surprise he (Excite) had an elevated temperature,” James said. “He had fed well and his temperature had been fine all week.

“Modern technology is wonderful and we were able to get a blood spun before scratching time and it indicated a mild infection of some kind. It was a hard decision to make because I was super happy with him, but I am certain we made the right one.”

With Excite out of the race, Incandescent shortened into a $2.50 favourite against his quartet of rivals, and off his work this week, James was confident of a bold showing.

The field of five couldn’t be separated in the early part of the race, with the quintet racing five abreast for the first 200m before jockey Lynsey Satherley was the first to peel back with Bella Bonita (NZ) (Noverre) to settle at the rear of the field, with the rest following suit, leaving Royce to take up the pacemaker role.

Jockey Joe Doyle settled Incandescent into the one-one behind the Tony Pike-trained Grocer’s Girl (NZ) (Tarzino), where his charge was able to settle through the middle stages. After balancing up when turning for home, Incandescent had the leaders in his sights and progressively wore them down, getting his nose in front with 150m to go and he held off Grocer’s Girl to win by a head, while Bella Bonita stormed home out wide to claim black-type.

“Roger said to ride him where he relaxes,” Doyle said. “They went quick early and I just allowed him to get into a nice rhythm, he came good turning in and battled hard to the line.

“Next season he is going to be a really fun horse, he will probably turn up to the big meetings and have a crack for the big money.”

James was glad his confidence was vindicated with a winning result.

“I was confident after his work on Tuesday morning, his work was very good,” James said. “It is probably a bit unusual for a Per Incanto two-year-old to be winning over a mile, but I was still confident that he would acquit himself well.

“I thought he (Doyle) summed it up really well. They slowed them up a little bit mid-race and he was a little bit strong for a few strides but all credit to the horse, he is learning as he goes and he came back to him when he needed to and gave him the energy to find the line.”

James was rapt to get the deserved stakes result for Incandescent’s large ownership group, and he said he will now head for a spell in preparation for a spring campaign.

“It is good to see so many people getting excitement from the game,” James said.

“When you looked at him parade, he is still a little immature, this will be his last run. He will come back stronger.”