Racing: Stablemates come home 1-2 in Liston

MELBOURNE - Local trainer Mick Price was celebrating when stablemates Pompeii Ruler and Red Dazzler grabbed the quinella in the group two JJ Liston Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Outsider Pompeii Ruler was having just his fifth start and landed his fourth win after a perfect ride from Nash Rawiller.

Rawiller had the Genuine four-year-old handy all the way behind the previously unbeaten leader Minson who pulled hard in front and was the first horse beaten.

Price said that the 1400m trip was a "fresh distance" for Pompeii Ruler. "I think 2000 metres is his best distance."

Price has nominated him for the Caulfield Cup (2400m) and the Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley, both in October.

Red Dazzler raced past Pompeii Ruler at the top of the straight but was worn down by his stablemate in the run to the line with Our Smoking Joe running on strongly for third.

"I put him in the race to get a measure on him," said Price, who said pre-race the gelding was "untapped and unproven".

"He's tapped and proven now. He'll go the weight-for-age way now. It was a fantastic win.

"Red Dazzler needs some racing. He'll come up good."

Meanwhile, top jockey Greg Childs missed the chance for his fifth Liston success when last year's winner Lad Of The Manor was a late scratching.

The Roger Hoysted-trained Lad Of The Manor kicked the running rail in the parade ring and suffered swelling to a hock.

Childs scored aboard Lad Of The Manor last year after winning the race previously with Bundy Lad (1993), Happy Star (1997) and Super Elegant (2003).

* Underrated Kiwi mare Anca clinched a long-range mission for the group one Telegraph Handicap in Wellington in January following her narrow win at Doomben on Saturday.

Anca ($4.60) gave trainer Stephen Marsh, 25, his second Brisbane winner after she outgunned Enthusiast ($6.50) to score by a neck in the Folding Bench Australia Quality (1350m).

Panzer ($15) filled the minor placing a further length away with boom sprinter Starlactic ($1.80 fav) a labouring fourth.

Victorian Natural Blitz ($12), who was having his first start since his Stradbroke Handicap defeat in June, ran an encouraging race to finish fifth.

Marsh, who started training three years ago in partnership with his father Bruce before he moved to Singapore, came to Brisbane in May with only two horses.

Anca became Marsh's first Queensland winner when she won at Doomben last month and the win encouraged him to extend his Brisbane stay.

"I'll probably keep her here for a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at Doomben next month but then I want to take her home for a spell before setting her for the Telegraph in January," he said.

Anca's win, her sixth in 12 starts, was the culmination of a well thought out race plan between Marsh and jockey Jim Byrne.

"She normally gets back but she doesn't have to and the plan today was to be up there on the pace," Marsh said.

"It was just beautiful when Jim got such a great trail through the race."

Grafton sprinter Starlactic failed his first test past 1200m but apprentice jockey Ric McMahon said the journey was not the problem.

"He was gone 500m from home but it wasn't the distance that beat him," McMahon said. "He didn't feel right going to the barriers and he's had enough racing for now."

* John Hawkes had a tough call to make last week.

Should he run three-year-old Mentality against the older horses in the Premiere Stakes or keep him to his own age group in the Run To The Rose with the steadier of 61kg?

He opted to do the latter and at Rosehill on Saturday his decision was vindicated.

Not only did Mentality arrive in the last stride to nail He's No Pie Eater and win the listed 1300m race but Hawkes also collected the Premiere with Paratroopers.

"That was a huge effort," Hawkes' stable foreman Peter Snowden said after Mentality's win.

"He relaxed really well and that's how he's been this time in.

"He was a bit erratic last preparation but he's a different horse now. He's working with us."

Sent out the $4.80 favourite, Mentality settled worse than midfield but unleashed a powerful sprint once Darren Beadman got him to the outside.

In a driving finish the Champagne Stakes winner prevailed by a nose over the Graeme Rogerson-trained He's No Pie Eater ($16) with Kris Lees' Boncoeur ($7) another nose away in third.

Mentality is among nominations for the A$1 million ($1.2 million) Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill in a fortnight and if he presses on is likely to face a rematch with both minor placegetters.

Hawkes won last year's Golden Rose with Paratroopers and Snowden said it would be up to the trainer whether Mentality followed the same path.

- NZPA