“It didn’t pay off”: Disappointment for Jimmysstar in “messy” Rupert Clarke

Jimmysstar and Damian Lane did not receive the luck required to win the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

After jumping nicely from barrier 1, the Ciaron Maher-trained gelding found himself in a tricky spot on the fence behind leader Run Harry Run and War Machine as they turned the bend.

At the 350-metre mark, Lane went to find a gap on Jimmysstar which was instantly closed down as those aforementioned horses weakened at the business end of the race. He went to poke his nose into another gap but again it was immediately shut down.

John O’Neill, who is a part owner of Jimmysstar, admitted that Lane was unlucky not to get a run which denied the gelding any conceivable chance of winning the race, which was in the end won by Kimochi and Craig Williams ahead of Another Wil and Jamie Kah.

“All I’ve got to say is that I think Damian Lane is one of the best riders in the world, I’ve always said that,” O’Neil said on SENTrack’s Giddy Up.

“I had a hundred text messages saying this is going to be the best ‘Oh No’ of all-time. I went back and had a look at it, I’ve looked at it five times.

“I was very stressed and frustrated because we didn’t win. As a matter of fact, I was very stressed and frustrated because we didn’t get an opportunity to try to win.

“I’m not even saying we would have won, but at least we would have had an opportunity. You can’t jump them, so at the end of the day he decided to go in rather than go out.”

O’Neill felt his horse was in good order before the race became messy due to the blustering breeze, bemoaning Lane’s gamble to stick on the inside rather than find a path around the tiring leaders.

“Where he found his spot I was so happy,” he added.

“I thought the danger in the race was Another Wil, clearly. When he booted up that planted Jamie three deep on Another Wil. I thought at that stage we were going to out-sprint Wil and we’d be ok.

“He decided to go in on the corner rather than pull out around them. It’s a split-second decision and it didn’t pay off this time.

“Very frustrating. I’ve looked at the stewards’ footage and it was messy. They were running in and out under pressure.

“I will say the wind played havoc too. That headwind up the side was playing absolute havoc.

“Horses were running all over the joint.”

Jimmysstar, who eventually finished 10th of 16 runners in the Rupert Clarke, could next be targeted towards the Doncaster Mile in Sydney in April.

But the route towards Randwick is not exactly set out just yet with some potential options in Melbourne such as the CF Orr Stakes or Futurity Stakes at Caulfield (both in February) or the new $1 million Supernova at Pakenham just before Christmas.

“I just spoke to Ciaron about it,” O’Neill added.

“The situation is that we think he’s a Doncaster horse in the autumn. We want to keep him here then have a crack at the Doncaster.

“Ciaron will make a call in the next week or so with ‘Oz’ (managing owner Ozzie Kheir) and the crew whether we spell because the autumn comes up so quick. There’s a couple of sevens (1400m races), one is the (CF) Orr at the end of February.

“There’s that enticing slot race at Pakenham on December 21 which is worth big money, it’s 1400m, he’s a gelding. So do you hang off, go there and run in the slot race at Pakenham? If you do that you can’t run in the Orr.

“Then there’s the Futurity so if you win one of the 1400m races, then you probably can’t win the Doncaster. He probably gets in the Doncaster with 52kg because he’s only won a Listed (race).”