Maher said the performance underlined just how far Tempted had come.<\/p>\n
\u201cTempted – wow. Who knows what we could do with her but she has got better every preparation and I don\u2019t think she is done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether she could now take on the world, Maher said the idea was not beyond her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe probably could but she is still a little bit quirky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see that going out on the track, she was a bit \u2018fruity\u2019. But she is improving all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schofield revealed that he had ridden Tempted more positively than usual and kept a close eye on Ka Ying Rising throughout the early stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst time I\u2019ve really ridden her and asked her from the start,\u201d Schofield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI normally just ride her to relax and trust her to be far too good late.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was a different race today. We had the world\u2019s best sprinter, the world\u2019s best horse. I had eyes for him, and I knew he wasn\u2019t up there and I held my spot and kept him deep and I\u2019m pretty sure that made Zac have to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
That tactical move proved crucial.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom there, I had the perfect trip,\u201d Schofield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came off from behind the two leaders, and I hit the front very early, a long way out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she\u2019s such a good horse, she’s so brave and so game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schofield said the plan had not necessarily been to lead or race prominently, but Tempted made the decision for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t our plan. Ciaron just said, let her be. If she wants to be there, let her be there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt in this race last year she was a pair further back than she needed to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI jumped, I gave her a squeeze, and like always, she was there for me and she delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-year-old has now won 10 of her 15 starts and Schofield believes she has continued to improve with every run this campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s getting better, that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rode her as a three-year-old and she came back so much stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was amazing first-up, she was even better second-up. I reckon she went to a new level there today.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s had three runs this prep and got better each time, why won\u2019t she keep improving now as a four-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maher also paid tribute to Godolphin for their patience with the mare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled for Godolphin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of horses don\u2019t reach their full potential but Godolphin has been very patient with Tempted.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is something special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maher said the performance underlined just how far Tempted had come. \u201cTempted – wow. Who knows what we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,153756,151019,498582,498585,498583,498586,406089,129903,498584,85,281318],"class_list":["post-931789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blake-shinn","tag-ciaron-maher","tag-empted","tag-group-1-racing","tag-hong-kong-racing","tag-horse-racing-newst","tag-international-racing","tag-ka-ying-rising","tag-racing-tupset","tag-sports","tag-winning-streak-ends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}