 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2006
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| All class....Mainland Banner |
Last week's $35,000 Group 2 Premier Mares'Championship was Mainland Banner's first appearance since her dramatic Cup win, and she was up against some very classy and race-hardened girls.
So when she was used out of the gate to find the front, got taken on vehemently during the running by firstly Nursemaid and then Nick Off Holme, she was literally a sitting duck for those in behind her that had had a soft trip. But this is Mainland Banner we're talking about. One reminder with the whip, a dozen double-handed shakes of the reins, and Mainland Banner proved once again that she is the best there is.
"She was always going to need the run, so I suppose that the way the race panned out she was vulnerable," said trainer Robert Dunn afterwards. "Ricky (May) wasn't going to use her early, he was going to nurse her round the first bend and then move forward. But when That's Life Lavra put a rough stride in at the start, he had no choice. So it is nice to know that she has got gate speed as well. She was tested tonight, and she knew it too because she blew afterwards. She has been as bright as a button ever since though," he said.
Mainland Banner steps out again this week in the PGG Wrightson Standardbred Breeders' Stakes, and although she was beaten the only other time she raced twice within seven days, Dunn thinks it is a totally different story this year.
"When Molly Darling got her in the Nevele R Fillies' Final it was the end of her 3-year-old season - she had gone from qualifying to a superstar in the space of about four months," he said. "She had travelled south a couple of times, and the Oaks win a week prior had taken the edge off her. But right now she is on the way up, and she will improve with that run for sure."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 1Feb06