Miss the start – No Fuss

Despite walking out of the starting stalls, No Fuss proved too good for his rivals at the Sandown Hillside on Wednesday, February 26.

Resuming from a spell, No Fuss, trained by Tony & Calvin McEvoy, missed the start by four lengths in the Sportsbet Feed Benchmark 64 Handicap (1300m).

Jockey Harry Coffey didn’t panic and allowed the four-year-old to find his rhythm before slowly working into the race.

Turning for home with a long 500 metre straight, Coffey found the back of the heavily backed Kalkallo which took him up to the leaders.

Past the 200 metres, No Fuss ($13) lengthened and raced alongside Kalkallo ($4 into $2.50 fav) to claim victory by a half-head with Summer Flame ($4.20), a length away third.

Rayan Moore, Racing Manager for McEvoy Mitchell, said the win was a huge bonus after the slow start.

“The win was very satisfying,” Moore said.

“The ownership group, who are here (at Sandown) today, have been very patient. You see him in the yard, he is a big, long horse, looks a bit like a giant kangaroo, but there is a bit of quality there. That was a big win! When you miss the start like he did, you hope he can just finish off and if he had run fourth or fifth I would have been rapt. “To win it was huge. (Jockey) Johnny Allen has done a lot of work on the horse but unfortunately he was suspended and missed out today, but Harry (Coffey) was an able partner.

“I think 2000 metres is where we will see No Fuss at his best. “I think he will appreciate cut in the ground going forward.”

Moore said the McEvoys had been patient with No Fuss since the horse came into the stable.

“Going forward I think we will see a really nice horse. A benchmark 64 today, a benchmark 70 next start and so on to take him through the grades.”

Winning jockey Harry Coffey admitted he thought No Fuss had blown his winning chance by walking out of the stalls.

“Once he missed it like he did, in that sort of field, I thought he was going to have to be pretty good to win,” Coffey said.

“My job was to make sure he had as smooth a run as possible in his first outing back at the races, just make everything nice for him. As the race eventuated, we just built momentum, and I ended up landing on the back of Brownie (Ethan Brown on Kalkallo) when it mattered. No Fuss surprised me that he was able to round the race off, win and fight at the end after doing so much wrong at the beginning. It was a very nice effort, and I would say he is worth following after that. He is still learning, he is still green – I thought it was a really good effort to put the race away like that.”