In Brief
- 5YO gelding does what most thought he would.
- Hellova Street gives Brunton the quinella.
- Rise or drop in distance are both options for next start.
Last night’s Listed Kevin Sharkie Tasmanian Stakes belonged to Scott Brunton who trained the quinella in the race as warm favourite Mandela Effect ($1.85) beat home stablemate Hellova Street ($2.40) by 0.8 lengths.
On a night where racing on-speed was advantageous, Mandela Effect ridden by Craig Newitt settled behind the leader Hellova Street in-running, with Newitt sweating on a run to present until well into the straight, but when the gap appeared the five-year-old gelding burst through to score his first win at Group or Listed level.
After an eye-catching second in the Listed Conquering Stakes at the prior start, Mandela Effect was all the rage with punters and was a deserved winner after losing a photo in the Conquering by the smallest of margins. A relieved Brunton spoke about the difficulty of seeing his stable stars go head to head in a feature race.
“Watching these races is not a lot of fun for a bloke like me that’s got a couple of really handy horses,” explained the trainer.
“For me it’s not enjoyable, you would like to spread your stock out, but it’s not to be. We’re very blessed to have these great horses in the stable. It’s fantastic,” said Brunton.
The dilemma of having multiple runners in a feature race is a great problem for Brunton to have, but Mandela Effect may rise in distance which would at least separate him from Hellova Street who took his career earnings over $1.1 million with his second placing.
“Craig Newitt really wants me to push on to a Brighton Cup over 2100, but we will just see. I am pretty happy with how the horse has gone and done everything.
“I would like to see him square off in a Thomas Lyons to be perfectly honest. I think maybe we will leave staying until next year with him,” said Brunton discussing the next start for the winner of 10 of his 21 career starts.
While Hellova Street was typically brave in second place, he crossed the line with the John Blacker-trained Zatacla (17.00) who put in a career best performance at the top level, and second placing came down to a bob of the head.
Watch the replay of Mandela Effect’s win in the Kevin Sharkie Tasmanian Stakes