CARTWRIGHT GETS CAN'T BE DONE HOME

Matthew Cartwright's impending reduced apprentice allowance is unlikely to hinder his attempts to outride his claim, if his winning ride aboard Can't Be Done at Sandown Lakeside on Wednesday is anything to go by.

With Melbourne's leading rider Jamie Kah drawn alongside him in the outside stall aboard Wilmot Pass ($3.30 favourite), Cartwright narrowed his focus on Rolling Moss ($16) on his opposite side in barrier 11 of 13 for the $50,000 Ladbrokes Bet Ticker (1200m) held under Benchmark 70 conditions.

"We had a sticky draw obviously and I knew the one inside me (Rolling Moss) was going to go forward so it was very easy, he took me across," Cartwright said.

The Danny O'Brien-trained Can't Be Done settled outside Rolling Moss before landing some good bets on the city-winning juvenile ($7.50 into $6), scoring by 1.25 lengths from the late-closing Arkham Knight ($8.50), who relished the Soft 6 conditions with blinkers reapplied.

Wilmot Pass settled three wide just forward of midfield and after briefly looming midway along the straight, held his run for third, a further long neck away.

"He travelled nicely and showed a good turn of foot at the top of the straight, so he was always going to be hard to run down. It was a good effort though because he was blowing out late," Cartwright said.

O'Brien's assistant trainer Ben Gleeson was glowing in his praise of Cartwright's decisive ride.

"It was just perfect," Gleeson said. "Matt's a jockey in form in the moment, he's one of the most impressive apprentices around and he justified that today with such a perfect ride."

Cartwright's success aboard Can't Be Done was his 22nd metropolitan win, with all but one of his victories having come below 1400 metres, and comes within weeks of his claiming allowance being reduced from 3kg to 2kg.

Can't Be Done has raced 15 times for four wins, with his previous metropolitan victory coming in near-identical circumstances when he settled outside the leader King Of Hastings over the same course also on Soft ground in June 2019.

Story by Carl Di Iorio

Pic by Racing Photos