A brilliant ride by Cox Plate winning jockey Hugh Bowman saw smart colt Flying Artie beat the more favoured runners in the Group 1 $500,000 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington today.
Flying Artie, pink and black colours, slices through the pack for Hugh Bowman to win the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
The Mick Price trained Flying Artie was sent out at the good odds of $10 after firming in from $13 and Bowman was able to push the Artie Schiller colt through the pack to down the $2.80 favourite Astern by one and a quarter lengths.
The Team Hawkes trained Star Turn ($4.60) shared the lead down the middle of the straight and fought on well to finish third a nose back.
Flying Artie’s stablemate and the more fancied stable runner Extreme Choice ($3.60) raced with the leading bunch but couldn’t match it with the placegetters in the run to the line to finish fifth, two and a quarter lengths behind the winner.
Price had said all along that there wasn’t much between the two colts but is glad to give all the accolades today to Flying Artie.
Flying Artie had drawn barrier one in the eight horse field and as the field split in two Bowman settled the colt behind the pack that settled in the middle of the track while James McDonald settled Astern on the heels of Russian Revolution down the grandstand side.
At the 300m Bowman was able to manoeuvre across heels and found the gap in the middle which Flying Artie was able to shoot through to record a dominant win in the end.
Flying Artie has been Group 1 placed on two occasions as a two year old with a second in the $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield followed by a third in the $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill and Price said that he deserved his Group 1 win today.
“He has won the right Group 1 hasn’t he,” Price said.
“He had drawn barrier one. I was very nervous about barrier one, feared he was would be left by himself there.”
“Somehow Hughie Bowman makes those brilliant Hughie Bowman decisions to get himself into the fat part of the race.”
“I did think the outside of the race held a lot of the pressure there so for him to get into the middle of them was just Hughie Bowman.”
“I know it was a great ride but he still has to have the horse underneath him. A lesser horse couldn’t have done it.”
“Finally Flying Artie has nailed a good Group 1, probably the Group 1 for three year old colts.”
Bowman picked up the winning ride, replacing Damien Oliver who was on the sidelines today after being suspended for reckless riding for his winning ride on Flying Artie in the Group 3 $350,000 Catanach’s Jewellers Blue Sapphire Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on October 12.
