Dark Mist stuns to claim Elders Real Estate maiden as upsets continue at Geraldton Turf Club

A rank outsider has burst through once again at the Geraldton Turf Club to claim a stunning maiden victory at Friday’s meet. After making five previous starts without a finish higher than seventh, Garry Delane’s Dark Mist was not given much of chance coming into the race as a $30 outsider. New Attraction was getting most of the attention coming off consecutive second-place finishes but made a poor start she could not recover from. Instead, Special Plan took the early lead and was followed closely by Destructor, with Dark Mist, ridden by Austin Galati, sitting towards the back of the field. But come the home straight the three-year-old filly showed she had plenty in the tank, blasting through the field from seventh to claim her maiden win by 1.4 lengths over Super Queen, with Special Plans fading to third. Favourite New Attraction was a distant eighth as Geraldton maidens continue to rip up form guides. That was not the case in the race one maiden, however, as unbackable favourite Identifier controlled his race perfectly, slotting in third before galloping away to win by a length over Liberty Dame. Race three went exactly to form, with the first, second and third favourites finishing in that order as Barry Newnham’s What A Prince held off Uni Queen by just 0.2 of a length, with Honorfic a distant third. Butterflyrock took home what was a relatively open race four, with no horse moving out to a clear winner by the times the markets closed. He sat in the mid pack before coming home in a bunch finish, edging the $4.40 favourite Sun Chacen by 0.8 of a length, with Traded Crown only a further 0.1 of a length behind in third. Julia Martin may have found another star in Miff Muffered Moof who, after winning his maiden only a week before, backed it up with a second straight win, beating Daiyamondo in a sprint finish by 0.3 of a length as Fine Line rounded out the podium. The favourite of race six, Hammarmill, put in a disappointing performance and was unable to find top gear as Martin had another winner in Bombay Style, who just squeezed ahead of Patchwork and Safe Hustle in a photo finish for second and third. Albert Botwell’s second favourite, Well Played, came out on top in what was the closest finish of the day, hunting down Ron Kowl’s Pop The Moet to win by 0.1 of a length, with the top four covered by less than a length. Jockey Galati was on top of four winners on the day, including Dark Mist, Miff Muffered Moof, Well Played and Bombay Style.