Holy Spy fails again as Bartime storms through to claim massive upset at Thursday races

For the second straight meet in a row, Holy Spy saw his quest to end his maiden tag taken away by a rank outsider at Thursday’s midweek race meet in Geraldton. Holy Spy has the unenviable record of 17 races without a win despite placing in his past eight races. The five-year-old gelding was heavily backed again to finally break his duck as the only runner with odds below the $5 mark. He started out strongly and settled in behind early leader Zero Dawn, where he stayed come the turn into the main straight. He was poised to take over the lead before $18 outsider Pure Chino burst from the pack to pip them both in a bunch finish. It was just Pure Chino’s first start and she had never placed before, while Holy Spy came home for a third straight second place just 0.6 lengths behind, with Zero Dawn just a further 0.2 back. It’s hard to fathom the run of results as Holy Spy consistently runs solid but fails the final hurdle. Elsewhere, the biggest shock of the day came in race seven when $26 outsider Bartime stormed home to take the race off unbackable favourite Platinum Shot. The $1.40 favourite was fresh off a win and was comfortably in the pack before moving up to sixth with 400m to go to gear up for a sprint finish. But Bartime had already launched his run moving up from eight to third before galloping clear of the field in a masterful ride by Victoria Corver to win by 1.6 lengths for Carnarvon trainer Brett Pope. In race two, maiden Julia Martin had a winner on her hands with Miff Muffered Moof in just her fourth start in a tight finish with Adam Durrant’s Fire The Guard. Both horses were side by side come the straight but Miff Muffered Moof edged ahead in the final sprint to take the win by just 0.2 lengths. Sauvegarde came out on top in an incredibly open race three in a dominant ride from pillar to post to take the win. Desert Perard took the win in race four after taking the lead before the main straight and holding on by the barest of margins from Random Rewards by 0.1 lengths. Queen Nardi won a comfortable race five by 1.3 lengths and was one of only two favourites to win at Thursday’s meet. The other was Golden Fighter for Sean Rains, who moved to the lead early and held off a fast-finishing Magnificant Carat by 0.2 lengths, with Albert Botwell’s Well Played just 0.7 lengths further back. In the last race of the day, Bombay Style gave Martin her second win of the day by charging home to overtake favourite Arabian Riches to win by 0.3 lengths.