Until they run again, you never know.
- Trainer John Blacker
Trainer John Blacker is always prepared to forgive a horse for one bad run.
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He believes "they can all have an off-day".
Had he not subscribed to that theory, Blacker would not have won his third Longford Cup with promising mare Triple Strip.
The four-year-old put in a rare poor performance in the Golden Mile at Spreyton early last month and the spelling paddock looked an option.
"But until they run again, you never know," Blacker said.
"She continued to work well so we pressed on - if she had run poorly again, then she would have gone to the paddock."
Instead of running poorly, Triple Strip put in a near career-best performance to win Wednesday's $20,000 feature by a half length from stablemate Magnasa with La Dernier Fille a half head away third.
Triple Strip, ridden by Bulent Muhcu, came from third-last and was the widest runner on the home turn.
"It was a big win," Blacker said. "She was a long way off them at the 800m.
"At the end of the day, she's a winner - her record shows that."
Triple Strip has a 50 per cent strike-rate, having scored seven times in 14 starts.
The Needs Further mare started at $7.50 on a poor day for favourite-backers.
Only one favourite won, Huon Chief, and he was a big drifter from $2.15 to $3.50.
It was also a poor day for leaders.
Backing on-pace runners was once considered a certain recipe for finding winners on the tight track but this year only Shewearsthepants fell into that category, racing outside the leader.
Huon Chief, Iowna and Banca Nip all took a sit midfield while Wide Spread Panic and Furrenzy both came from last.
Outside of Blacker supplying the quinella in the cup, the training performance of the day came from Leon Laskey.
Longford-based Laskey won with Wide Spread Panic (Peter Lui) and Shewearsthepants (Mehmet Ulucinar), both at double-figure odds.
Lui also won on the Alana Fulton-trained Iowna while Muhcu was also a multiple winner, adding a runaway victory on the Ken and Tanya Hanson-trained Furrenzy to his cup success.
Scott Brunton got a training double with Huon Chief and Banca Nip after two very good rides from Siggy Carr and Craig Newitt respectively.
Newitt was unlucky not to make it a race-to-race double on the Blacker-trained Silver Road who went down by a nose with 61.5kg after being accidentally hit over the head by a rival jockey's whip in the home straight.
Racing returns to Mowbray on Saturday night with the $100,000 Tasmanian Guineas and $100,000 Tasmanian Stakes.
