Flying Filly's one-horse race
The Age 02/02/03

The person least concerned that the promotion of the Debonair at Flemington yesterday as a Melbourne-Sydney match race turned out to be a waste of words was winning trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith, who had concentrated only on his runner, Innovation Girl.

Mayfield-Smith, who has an excellent strike rate at one in four, hates wasting a race. This one, over 1420 metres on his home track, worked out as he knew it would and his filly led all runners to the post.

While she was making it 10 wins from 13 starts, Sydney's boom colt Thorn Park was just another chaser in the pack, finishing wide and three lengths adrift in sixth place.

This was the special girl's time and place, and Mayfield-Smith knew it - before the race, after it and for most of it. His worrying seconds came soon after the start when Blur raced forward and stirred up the filly.

Innovation Girl's rider, Nash Rawiller, like the horse well-schooled by Mayfield-Smith, said he realised he was better off not trying to fight her to settle her.

"I just tried to cuddle her as long as I could," he said. "I thought we were going to be vulnerable, but she's very high class, very tough."

Mayfield-Smith said before the race: "Today will suit her. She'll probably find the lead or be handy fairly early, and she's got a very good turn of foot. Sit and let go, and you make it virtually impossible, mathematically impossible, to run her down on times." Punters agreed. She was the $2.25 favourite, Thorn Park started at $3.

"The 1600 (metres of the Australian Guineas in two weeks) is a different ball game," was another Mayfield-Smith comment pre-race. "If she's to go on to the guineas, she'll have to win well."

She did, but as a sprinter not a miler who will be chased by Thorn Park and yesterday's runner-up Delago Brom.

Innovation Girl's best interests and Mayfield-Smith's hatred of waste were to the fore immediately after the win.

"That's not really a 1600 metres guineas run . . . I'll sit on that overnight," he said.

"It's not really what I want to do, it's what the horse can do. On that race today she'd race too hard in the guineas.

"I've just got to place her where she can win, I've got to do what's best for her and one day she'll get into a group one and win it. I've just got to be patient about that."

While being patient, he has placed Innovation Girl to win almost $1 million. With rich sprint options, the odds are there will be no return bout with Thorn Park.

One kind of wasting Mayfield-Smith approves is that of Rawiller, whom he thanked for losing weight to stay with Innovation Girl, who carried 54 kilograms. "It's very important she has the same rider," he said. "She does respond to a certain touch."

Rawiller, who does not waste words, said: "This morning after trackwork I was 53.9 (kilograms). I was rapt about that, I only had to have a quick sweat in the sauna."

His pleasure was tempered by concern over close friend Lonaghan Milham, the young jockey critically injured in a race fall at Hanging Rock last Monday.

Rawiller choked back tears at the Debonair presentation as he wished Milham well, and said later: "He's in an induced coma. He had a bad night last night."