Even jockey John Powell was on the point of conceding defeat when he caught a peek of favourite Mr Dujardin’s shadow ominously looming up at the top of the straight.
The experienced rider had done all he could to give O’What A Feeling ($60) a textbook frontrunning ride, especially in light of his unfocused run last time out, when he came unravelled after showing the way in a 2000m race.
The O’Reilly five-year-old did elect for the same leading tactics again, but when even-money favourite Mr Dujardin (Matthew Kellady) slid alongside at the 300m, Powell was ready to fight for the minors.
But to his pleasant surprise, O’What A Feeling picked himself off the canvas and came punching his way back along the rails with a second wind. Granted, Mr Dujardin was not unwinding the way he did at his devastating last-to-first debut win in Open Maiden company, but he was still fighting hammer and tongs to live up to his prohibitive odds.
Maybe O'What A Feeling had been able to set aside a few drops of petrol for that last dogfight, but he sure made full use of them to rise from the ashes and successfully stave Mr Dujardin off by a head.
Justice Fair (Olivier Placais) did take a late stab at the duelling pair inside the last furlong, but he was held at arm’s length rather comfortably in the end, finishing third another 1 ¾-lengths away. The winning time was 1min 48.98secs for the 1800m on the Long Course.
“On paper, Mr Dujardin was the horse to beat and when he came up at the 350m, I thought he would easily put three lengths on us,” said Powell.
“I thought Mr Dujardin looked a bit one-paced and to my bloke’s credit, he kept fighting.
“Tonight, he came out of the barriers better, but he was wandering around a little. I was happy he was not pulling and we got some easy sectionals through the race.”
While Powell and Kellady are the No 1 and No 2 jockeys for trainer Shane Baertschiger, the Australian handler was for one rooting for only one of his riders in the last 200m on Friday night.
“I was definitely not pushing for Matty tonight,” said Baertschiger.
“This horse led over 2000m at his last start, but he was not fully concentrated alone in front.
“JP has since done a bit of work with him and got his mind back on the job. It was a two-horse war tonight, but I think my horse was always up.
“To be fair, he will battle a little bit now. He’s only an honest Class 4 horse who finds it harder once he goes up in class, but you never know.”
O’What A Feeling, who is a half-brother of Baertschiger’s stalwart Blue Swede, has now taken his record to three wins and five placings from 21 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $160,000 for the GPI Racing Stable.
