A steady diet of country racing has resulted in five-year-old State My Case becoming stronger, and she repaid Byford trainer Peter Anderson for his astute planning when she caused a surprise in winning the $35,000 Garrard’s Horse And Hound Race For Roses, a stand over 2503m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Anderson also made sure he arrived early for the 2022 APG Perth yearling sale because he had set his sights on buying the opening lot, a Rock N Roll World filly bred by the Allwood Stud. He outlaid $22,500 to purchase the filly, who is raced by his wife Amanda and Ross Waddell.
“I liked the filly’s dam Adda My Way, and I wanted to get her fourth foal,” said Anderson. “State My Case has gone through the country grades, and she has improved with racing and has come back this year much stronger.”
State My Case has raced on ten country tracks --- Narrogin, Wagin, Albany, Williams, Collie, Busselton, Bunbury, Pinjarra, Kellerberrin and Northam --- and she now has earned $96,525 from nine wins and 22 placings from 76 starts, and has surpassed the deeds of Adda My Way, who had 47 starts for seven wins, ten placings and $32,968.
Adda My Way’s only Gloucester Park win was when Shannon Suvajko trained and drove her to victory on April 19, 2012. Suvaljko was in the sulky for Friday night’s win when State My Case began from 10m and raced in fourth spot in the Indian file affair before gaining an ideal passage in the one-out and two-back position.
State My Case, a $23.40 chance, sprinted strongly to get to the front with 250m to travel before winning by two and a half lengths from Diamond World ($14), with $8 chance Paroquet a close third after working in the breeze outside the pacemaker Minor Catastrophe ($5) for much of the way before getting to the front in the final circuit.
State My Case is related to former star performer Rich And Spoilt (42 starts for 20 wins, 14 placings and $301,630) and is a half-sister to Antero, who won four metro-class events in 2021 and was retired after earning $130,930 from 13 wins and 25 placings from 71 starts.
Brilliant mare Penny Black, the winner of the 2025 Race For Roses, was the $2.20 favourite from the back mark of 70 metres on Friday night when she found the handicap was too difficult to overcome. She raced at the rear and battled on gamely, out wide, to finish fifth.
“Penny Black was handicapped out of it,” said her driver Emily Suvaljko. “Running those times off the front made it an impossible task.”
