The “mathematically impossible” defence of Nolen’s Sheza Alibi ride

Punters were stunned on Saturday after star mare Sheza Alibi went under as the $1.40 favourite in the Group 1 Might And Power.

There was a hush around the Caulfield Racecourse, and in the following hours, some disgruntled punters made heavy criticism of jockey Luke Nolen’s ride on the four-year-old.

The field allowed the roughie, Land Legend, to get away from them, similar to how Pride Of Jenni goes about her runs, and it became just too hard to chase the Ciaron Maher-trained gelding down.

On RSN’s Correct Weight, a day after the race, there were plenty of unhappy texters slamming Nolen.

Trav Noonan came to the defence of the hoop, explaining that it was absolutely fair of Nolen to assume that the roughie was going to fold up in his run.

“There's a lot of texts coming through critical of the ride of Luke Nolen, and I just tell them to stick that up your jumper. That's just rubbish!” emphasised Trav.

“He could not have done much more under the situation. You can't go and chase from the 1200m mark.

“It's just one of these scenarios when you've got the tearaway leader, like he's gone around some places 100 to 1, you have to play the percentages and think he's going to come back to you.

“I can't understand the criticism on the ride of Luke Nolen. I thought he rode the race well under the circumstances.

“The way the race was run, it was mathematically impossible for them at the 800m.”

Trav’s brother, Nick, also came to the defence of Sheza Alibi’s jockey, even stating he would have done exactly what Nolen did.

“They (Luke Nolen and Ben Melham) played the percentages, didn't they? No one expected Land Legend to do what he did there yesterday,” said Nick.

“Maybe they didn't pay him enough respect out in front, but if I was riding one of those two (Sheza Alibi or Birdman), I'd be in exactly the same boat thinking he's probably going to come back to us.”

Immediately after her loss, Trav met up with co-trainer Katherine Coleman, where she admitted the daughter of Saxon Warrior just simply had “too much to do” to defeat Land Legend from where she was.

“Incredibly proud of her. I think she's ran an amazing race to make up that much ground from where she was. It's a huge effort from her,” Coleman exclaimed.

“She's ticked that 2000m box. They've ran along at a really good gallop there and she just had too much to do from where she was to get past the eventual winner.”

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