Cat Noir made it two wins in a row when toughed out a remarkable impressive victory from a challenging barrier at Geelong on Wednesday.
Despite meeting mostly older and more experienced horses, the three-year-old filly produced the run of her career from barrier 13 to land the Mapien Stakes Hcp (1715m).
Trainer Jamie Edwards said he could not remember training a winner from such a wide barrier at the 1700m start at Geelong and the stats back up the difficulty with just 10 winners from the last 163 tries over the distance.
“What she did today was hard to do,” Jamie said.
“She rolled forward to be four-wide for a fair way, got in three-wide and got a bit of cover for a couple of hundred metres, then was very strong through the line.
“Her last 50 metres was very strong, and she was racing away from them.”
She defied a betting drift in $17 to $26 and scored officially by 0.46 lengths from Freedom Escape ($4.60) and favourite Extreme Virtue ($3.50).
Jockey Winona Costin who has ridden around 600 winners, marvelled at the Cat Noir’s performance.
“She was very tough,” Winona said.
“She had in a very tricky outside barrier and there was good pace in the race so I couldn’t get in.”
Cat Noir settled near the pace but was unable to get in until the 700 metres as Winona bided her time on the Merchant Navy filly who was bred by her managing owners Fernrigg Farm
“I just held her together to the top of the straight, so we had that last little bit for the finish, and gee, she toughed it out well.
“She saw the other horse coming, saw it looming, and when I changed the whip over away she went again.”
The stunning performance wasn’t lost on James Edwards as he watched the race on a television monitor on the course and rushed hopping, skipping and jumping into the mounting yard.
“It was a mighty effort. She was entitled to drop out after the run she had,” James said.
Jamie Edwards said it was the first time Cat Noir had been asked to chase in a race and he suspects she will run 2000 metres.
“She’s won well at Geelong last start, and she keeps improving,” Jamie said.
Cat Noir had shown signs of training off with her winter coat coming through, but she may have convinced the stable to keep her going for a black-type assignment this campaign.
“We’ll have to have a good think about it now,” Jamie said.