Swettenham Stud

Troy Turner in the Sangster Silks

The dreaded EI affected the horse, not by getting the equine virus, but by being stranded with his other two stable companions at ridiculous quarantine stations on both sides of the Nullabor for over 4 weeks after leaving early for the sale preparation. Later arrivals did not get caught up in the shifting bureaucratic red tape and only did 6 to 8 days depending on the shipment. The Court of Jewels colt fared the worst of the three getting that sick that despite turning up at the sale, he was quickly withdrawn and trucked off to the vets and placed on a drip for three days.

He was therefore retained and placed with young trainer Shane Edwards who was well known to Swettenham staff from his visits to the eastern state sales and who has sent mares to the Swettenham stallions for himself and clients. He had a mate by Hold That Tiger who was passed in at the sale and he was broken in, educated by Shane before being sold to Hong Kong where he is currently in training with David Hall.

So Speech Room was the retained commodity who after running second to Karrakatta Plate winner Gold Rocks as a 2YO in a trial and going shin sore was put aside to start racing this season at three. His debut run was an absolute pearler and he just wilted in the last three strides to finish fourth at Belmont in a very hot open 3YO race on debut to Sir Hallowell. Second start he was very unlucky coming from the rear and checked twice running home for third beaten a length and a half by Clueless Angel and Dino Mak. His third run again at Belmont saw him near the lead and beaten a length and a quarter into fourth place in a muddling run race over 1400m, which one way or another did not suit him or maybe it was the short back up.

The 1300m race at Northam was supposed to be a maiden, however it became a 68 rating race and the expected soft kill became another test of Speech Room as the very smart Clueless Angel was engaged.

Clueless Angel (Paul Harvey), a three time winner, started at the prohibitive odds of $1.60 and was tracked by Troy Turner on Speech Room for the entire race. The Court of Jewels three year old over raced early, but settled nicely once the pace went on and stuck to his guns in the final 200m when it looked like the favourite had him beaten.

With two weeks break this time, Speech Room did the job required. Interestingly the other two 1300m maidens were for 4YO+ gallopers and the 3YO’s ran the quickest time by 2 and 3 lengths respectively. The 3YO’s also ran home the last 600m (35.08) much quicker. With Clueless Angel coming from fourth place at the 600m mark and three wide on the turn and Speech Room coming from sixth place a further 1.5 lengths astern and four wide he has run home in about 34.75 and been 4 wide.