Flying Frog finally jump starts career

He has been running him all over the place — most recently Gundagai and Hay in NSW.

‘‘We took him to Hay convinced we couldn’t be beaten and got smashed,’’ Osborne said.

‘‘He has been working well, but we can’t work it out why he doesn’t do better,’’ he said.

‘‘But finally I think it might be starting to change.’’

Sent out at 15/2 with little punter interest in the $15000 Living Here Benalla C, G&E over 1106m Flying Frog jumped well and was right on the pace when the field settled.

He had an easy run and tagged pacemaker Little Capri when it tried to string the field out at the 600m mark.

As they rounded the bend into the straight the Frog hung out four wide as Claridge worked hard to convince the horse to try and go straight.

Finally around the 200m pole it all came together and the Flying Frog jumped clear of the pursuers to win by ¾ of a length.

‘‘He had a wide draw today (barrier 14) and the jockey did well to maintain position while working towards the rail,’’ Osborne said.

‘‘Sometimes you have just got to let them do their own thing, especially when they are out the front like he was today.

‘‘If you can do that it doesn’t pressure them, it lets them get their breathing right and then you’ve still got something of a horse left at the end of the race when you are asking for that extra effort.’’

Claridge said she had been confident about the ride despite the lack of interest from punters, and wasn’t overly fussed about gate 14.

‘‘We weren’t too concerned about the wide barrier today as he has a lot of gate speed,’’ Claridge said.

‘‘Russell simply didn’t want me to hassle him too early, just to let him find his feet,’’ she said.

‘‘He travelled up well to sit outside the leader and then had a really good sprint in him at the finish. He was strong all the way down the straight and I was a little surprised as he has been a little out of form of late.

‘‘But I was still really happy to get him in for Russell, who supported me a lot in getting my licence.’’