Fresh from a winning treble last Sunday, trainer Theo Kieser was back in the winning groove with Goal Keeper in the $75,000 Class 3 Stakes over 1200m on Friday night.
Showing tremendous pace, Goal Keeper, ridden by Olivier Placais, scored by a length-and-a-quarter over Country Club (Oscar Chavez) with Simply The Best (Joao Moreira) the same margin away third.
Following a slightly slow beginning Placais allowed Goal Keeper his head where he burst through the pack, setting up a four length lead after 400m.
Placais was able to back off the speed in the middle stages of the race before again kicking clear early in the straight and defy the opposition to run him down.
Kieser has a young team and Goal Keeper showed his promise as a two-year-old last season and was successful last July at that age, following in the footsteps of Kaiser (also a two-year-old winner) who was one of Kieser's trio of winner's last Sunday.
Kieser said it was not his intention for Placais to go out as hard in the lead as he would have preferred the gelding to take a sit during his races.
“He raced in blinkers as a younger horse but we had to take them off him as he went too hard,” said Kieser.
“Ideally tonight I would have liked for him to take a sit, but drawing barrier seven I was fearful he would be caught wide.
“I had a bit of a talk with Olivier and we decided in the end that it would be best to go forward and lead and make the others chase us down.
“I'm not too sure where we will go with him now. I'll talk to the owners and see what they want to do.
“He's been a pretty good horse so far and hopefully there is still a few more wins there for him.”
Placais said Goal Keeper can be a bit of a handful in his races with his penchant for wanting to hang in during his races.
“He was having a good look around on the way to the barriers and I was thinking about him laying in,” said Placais.
“I thought it would be best if he could find the rail which he would be able to use as a guide.
“He was slow to jump but there was a big gap there that I was able to drive him through and we found the lead quite easily.
“I was able to slow down the pace before again going clear in the straight.
“He's a nice horse and it's good to win on a nice horse for Theo.”
Goal Keeper has been a model of consistency throughout his career and on Friday night registered his fourth win from nine starts with a further three minor placings.
By Untouchable from the Kampala mare My Cousin Rachel, Goal Keeper has won around $170,000 in prizemoney for owner Sam Chee Kiong.
Placais continued the good form when he guided April's Knight to a four-and-three-quarter length victory over New Friends (Jacky Low) in the $35,000 Class 5 Stakes over 2000m.
