The longshot turned hotshot
Dice scatteers her rivals in Cesarewitch success
ing closer on the inside of the
field.
"I couldn't get a run anywhere," recalls Silvestre, "so I
decided to switch her and get
daylight."
He didn't half switch her; the
filly travelled several horsewidths left before appearing
beside Oriental Fox as Johnny
Murtagh produced the Lomitas
gelding with a run on the outside. The pair appeared to come
together, but it didn't impair the
progress of Scatter Dice, who
powered on to a three-length
success from Waterclock with
Lieutenant Miller half a length
back in third.
Silvestre de Sousa celebrates his victory on Scatter Dice in the winner’s enclosure
This was the filly's first
attempt at 18 furlongs, though she had
run over 17 at Ayr in September, finishCATTER DICE produced a open her account for the season.
ing last! Oriental Fox ran a cracking
Rated 88, she was sent off at those long
quite remarkable performance at Newmarket on odds, but, crucially, she was racing in a
October 12 to land the visor for the first time. Market leader
Betfred Cesarewitch, the tra- was Lady Cecil's Tiger Cliff, winner of
ditional second leg of the Autumn the Ebor Handicap, a race in which
Double, coming from last to first in a Oriental Fox had finished fifth, beaten
field of 33 and providing jockey three lengths.
Although the Cesarewitch is run over
Silvestre de Sousa with a memorable
the marathon trip of two miles, two fursuccess at odds of 66/1!
Mark had sent out a team of three for
longs, starting in Cambridgeshire and
the race, and Markus Graff's Oriental
ending in Suffolk, few horses can afford
Fox, sent off at 8/1, appeared to have the
to give away lengths at the start. Yet
best credentials. Johnny Murtagh took
that's exactly what Scatter Dice did here.
the ride and the partnership were well
The filly crawled out of the stalls, and
fancied to repeat their Cesarewitch 'trial'
having given away the best part of 10
success.
lengths to her competitors, Silvestre de
The remarkable Broxbourne was
Sousa took the opportunity to switch her
attempting to win her eighth race of the
over to the running rail. He had already
year for the Ready To Run Partnership
had some difficulty in getting the filly to
and, racing off a mark of 94, she started
go to the start, and it appeared she was
at odds of 33/1. Scatter Dice, Sheikh
not really facing the visor in the early
Hamdan bin Mohammed's four-year-old
stages of the race.
Manduro filly, was having her 16th run
In many ways that may have helped the
of the year, and despite having run well
filly in the second half of the race. As
on a number of occasions, she was yet to
the pace increased, she was noted creep-
S
race under his penalty and finished
sixth, beaten around five lengths, while
Broxbourne failed to sparkle and came
home near the tail of the field.
Mark was recording his third win in the
Cesarewitch, Scatter Dice following in
the hoofprints of Spirit of Love (1998)
and Contact Dancer (2004). This year's
prize-money for the race matched that of
the Ebor, also sponsored by Betfred,
allowing Scatter Dice to pick up
£155,625 for her efforts.
Jockey Silvestre de Sousa was over the
moon with the filly.
"It's unbelievable," he told the Klarion.
"It's a race to remember forever for me;
she's so tough and genuine, and she's
such a trier."
Silvestre now has a 100% record on the
filly -- three wins from three starts.
Mark, while delighted, admitted to
being a little relieved at the filly's run.
"She has run a couple of strange races
Scatter Dice (centre) missedd the break but got the better of 32
www.markjohnstonracing.com
14
Mark, Silvestre and groom Sharwan Singh with the Cesarewitch heroine
recently," he explained, "and I was concerned about her in the first half of the
race. I was just
relieved when I
saw her hanging
in with the back
of the pack, and
then I saw her
coming
from
quite a long way
out."
Scatter Dice
was third in the
Ulster Derby at
Down Royal in
June, and followed that effort
up with a fifth at
the end of that
month in the
Northumberland
Plate. She went
to
post
at
Newmarket on a
mark just two
pounds
lower
than at Gosforth
opponents
Park.
She is from the first crop of the Darley
stallion Manduro, out of the Soviet Star
mare, Sensation, who was trained by
Mme Criquette Head-Maarek to win the
Falmouth Stakes for Sheikh Mohammed
in 1996.
That makes her a half-sister to
Systematic, who won the Cumberland
Lodge Stakes and Ormonde Stakes, both
Group 3, when trained by Mark for the
late Maktoum al Maktoum in 2002/4.
Manduro has had an excellent year, siring 15 black type performers, according
to the Darley website, including the Oaks
d'Italia winner, Charity Line, who followed up that Group 2 success in May
with a Group 1 win on October 27 in the
Premio Lydia Tesio in Rome.
As planned before the race, Scatter Dice
has now been retired from racing. She
will go to the paddocks having won five
races over distances ranging from 10 to
18 furlongs and having earned more than
£236,000 in career prize-money.
One thing is for certain: Silvestre de
Sousa will be sorry to see her go!
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15