Underwood Stakes Day (Sandown Hillside) – September 25th

Tobin Brothers Celebrating Lives Handicap

(4yo+ M BM90 Handicap - 1000m)

Post Race Details & Comments

Winning Horse: Esta La Roca (NZ)

4yoM El Roca (Aus) - Camouflaged (Aus)(Strategic (Aus))

13 starts - 5 wins 2 seconds 3 thirds 1 fourth $262485

Black Type Placings

2nd LR Moonee Valley Long Fine Hospitality Carlyon 1000m (2021)

3rd LR Morphettville Tab Lightning Stakes 1050m (2021)

Other Wins

1st Sandown-Hillside Ladbrokes Switch (Bm64) 1000m (2021)

1st Moonee Valley Seppelt Wines (Bm64) 1000m (2020)

1st Moonee Valley Ladbrokes 55 Second Chall-Bm64 955m (2020)

1st Cranbourne P & L Darose-Afc 2 Mdn Plate 1000m (2020)

Race Result:

1st: Esta La Roca (Josh Richards/Lloyd Kennewell) - $2.70F

2nd: Bless Her (Damien Oliver/Clayton Douglas) - $15
3rd:
 How Womantic (Teodore Nugent/Ciaron Maher & David Eustace) - $4.80

Winning Time: 57.21  Last 600m: N/A

Margins:  Head x Long Neck

Winning Trainer: Lloyd Kennewell

Scratched from last night: “I just felt it was an option that suited her better for speed tactics early. As we saw, Josh controlled the race beautifully today.

“We would have been keen to do that last night but 955 metre races don’t allow you to do that and I think they’d have run a track record last night (if she was in the race) so I was happy to dodge it.

“She’s had a couple of really tough runs and a trip to Adelaide. It’s a good way to finish the preparation, a good way to go out.

“The powers-to-be here don’t allow us to treat mares in-season and she’s been in-season all week. It’s disappointing that that happens. In Sydney you’re allowed to treat them, here you’re not.

“Even in the stalls leading into the race today she was very much in season and horsing around so I don’t think she really liked the whip late in the race either but she got the job done, to her credit.

“She was tricky to place to get that black type win. We went to the right races which we felt were her strengths and she got black type placing and bumped into some black type horses along the way. She’s won at the start of the prep, finished at the end of the prep with a win and she’ll have a little break.

“We’ll then try and find something for her but I think you’ll see her in the 955’s at some stage but definitely a freshen up for now. She’s deserved it.”

Winning Jockey: Josh Richards

“She’s been racing in good company and she tries her little heart out. She deserved another win today.

“She seems to like this track. You could hear them coming but I thought she’d done enough to hold them out.”