By Alex Nolan
On October 1 of last year, trainer Jedda Cutlack and punters across the country were left aghast when the well-backed Sorority gave up a 15 length lead at the home turn to finish last in a heat of the Col Harris Gold Sovereign over 630 metres at Ipswich.
The daughter of US sire Konomi and talented stayer Sherbini looked assured to collect her fifth career win at just her 14th race start, but left punters who took the $2.30 shorts feeling ill in the aftermath.
Cutlack wishes she could say she was “surprised” by the incident, which earned Sorority an enforced stint on the sidelines from the stewards but that wouldn’t be entirely true.
Fast-forward another four months and Sorority now finds herself in the thick of a Group 3 Final on a massive night of racing at Albion Park.
Her journey to this point has been a chequered one, as Cutlack explains.
“She fell at Albion Park so we started racing her at Ipswich,” the trainer told Racing Queensland.
“Then one night, she got spooked by a loud group of punters in the crowd and she started pulling up after the post and wouldn’t always make it to the catching pen.
“On the night that the incident happened, I had someone standing at the 431 metre boxes just in case she didn’t make it to the pen, they said I should have had them standing at the 520 metre box instead.
“It did surprise me a little in that you hate to see them do it when they’re on the bunny.
“It’s one thing if a dog doesn’t cop pressure, but if they’re not chasing it’s more difficult.
“In saying that, she has been chasing well in a field and has been happy passing other dogs.
“I think at her last 600 metre race on January 23 she walked out and got belted, but still ran on really strong.
“We’ve just got to take it one run at a time but touch wood, she’s doing OK.”
Sorority will be the least experienced of the runners contesting Thursday’s $100,000 to the winner Final when she exits box seven, wedged between the Ned Snow-trained runners Oh Oh Range (box eight) and Pocket Money (box six).
But, the 28-month-old is no stranger to taking on some of South East Queensland’s most capable types, having contested races against quality opposition throughout her career to date.
The Sonia Davis-owned chaser will also have the benefit of upside over the 710 metre journey, with last week’s heat her first attempt at the trip.
There, after looking a winning threat on the turn for home, she couldn’t quite put away gun stayer Mepunga Ruby but stuck on well to finish more than three lengths away in third.
“It was fantastic,” Cutlack said of Sorority’s heat run.
“That was her first go over 700 metres and she’d had a run on the Monday, so I thought she may have been a bit flat but she wasn’t she got to the line quite strongly.
“Obviously, you’d like to win. But, for her first go I was really happy with how she ran.”
Sorority’s dam Sherbini won multiple times over 700 metres and beyond at Sandown and Wentworth Park, while her litter mate Sher Zany is a recent 730 metre winner at The Meadows.