The Group 2 FFA held in Ashburton today was an action packed affair. Suave Stuey galloped from the stand, Mark Purdon on Fly Like An Eagle had an ineffective off-side rein that resulted him travelling safely around the track a couple of times inside the pegs before the Clerk caught him, but most uncharacteristically Christen Me disgraced himself going off-stride and losing all chance. Sometimes you forget that these seasoned top-liners are capable of making these mistakes...nevertheless after TTL found the race presented to him after all of the turmoil he went on to demolish a pretty handy field and still carved out 1.57.2 for the 2400, last qtr in 27.9. He does not seem to find the same luck in his races in Oz as he does at home.

Some of those Lauren Panella haters (and I am not one of them) can also take comfort in the fact that she too found the ire of the NZ stewards copping a $250 fine for excessive whip use. Stuey ran a pretty brave race under the circumstances. Mark Purdon also copped $250 when it was discovered that the offending rein had not been affixed properly in the first place.

One tick for the NZ stewards, only a couple of hours after the meet and the whole report is up on the web...wish we had that sort of efficiency in OZ, sometimes waiting for DAYS to read a full report.