Racing: Another dead-heat sensation

Dead-heats seem to be a common occurence nowadays.

Among them last year were four sets of dead-heats for first placing - Christmas with Select Gathering, Silent Power with Newfoundjoy, Goliath with stablemate Joyous Express and Sir Fleetwood with stablemate Hopkins.

Only at the New Year's Day meeting, Pin Yin and All Forus shared second placing, and they were only a head behind the winner, I Like. Yesterday saw another exciting moment when two horses flashed past the post together in Race 8, the Graduation event over 1,200m. It took a fairly long time before the judge declared STRUBELI and GATO NEGRO joint winners.

RACED GREENLY

The race started with Gato Negro leading handily by two lengths from the grey Strubeli.

At the top of the straight, where Gato Negro was spooked by a flock of birds on Oct 27 last year and caused havoc to the race, the horse raced greenly and continued to do so and shifted ground.

This led to jockey Oscar Chavez having to stop riding and straighten the gelding on a number of occasions.

Strubeli charged up under jockey Lisa Allpress' vigorous riding, as did last-start winner Euro Zone.

The Stephen Gray-trained New Zealand-bred, who won his previous race by a nose, beat off Euro Zone and appeared to have the upperhand midway down the straight when Gato Negro drifted out to the outer fence.

But the leader found a second wind and came back to slug it out to the end.

Gray was pleased with Strubeli's fighting spirit, but he thought "the other horse won".

"Big difference in weight," said the Kiwi, comparing Strubeli's 58kg handicap to Gato Negro's 51.5kg.

"The horse thought he won after he got past Euro Zone. I think he's got a good future. Nice horse."

Chavez, too, has a good opinion of Gato Negro.

He said that his mount was gazing around and was going all over the place.

"He should have won easier, but he's still a handful and still has a lot to learn," he added.

Gato Negro, who has now won twice from five starts, was the second leg of a double for trainer Alwin Tan.

In Race 5, his rising galloper GOT LUCK (Danny Beasley) fought it out with Bale Star before winning by a mere shorthead. It was Got Luck's fifth success in seven starts.

Like Tan, Gray also had a double.

He took Race 6 with my best bet MY BROTHERS KEEPER, who romped home by five and a quarter lengths to pay $11 for a win.

Strubeli was The New Paper tipster Larry Foley's best bet and would have paid a juicy $24 if he had won outright. His dividend was halved because of the dead-heat.

Strubeli has now won three of his five starts and is heading for better things.

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