Racing: Abbey Drive on wayward path to victory

Abbey Drive bounced back to winning form impressively in the opening event at Te Rapa yesterday, though the winning margin was much closer than most favourite punters wanted.

The 3-year-old Zabeel-sired colt was more relaxed in his racing attitude in this race, settling back at the tail of the field in the hands of jockey Grant Cooksley and unleashed a sustained sprint down the outer in the home stretch to win the Wentwood Grange-sponsored event by a short neck from Tatlock. A further three-quarters of a length away in third position was Dawdy.

Abbey Drive was a costly last-start flop when over racing and fading to finish eighth behind Pulcinella in a 3-year-old event at Te Rapa.

The only concern for trainer Richard Yuill and the owners of the equine blue-blood was the colt running inwards in the home stretch, giving Cooksley a difficult time.

"The biggest gain from the win here was that he didn't over race and Grant was able to restrain him to the back of the field and he settled perfectly," Yuill said.

"Yes, it's a minor concern that he did lug in a bit in the straight, but that's something that won't take a lot of work to correct.

"I'm sure we will have him running in a perfectly straight line the next time he steps on to a race track."

Later in the day, Yuill was in a reflective mood following the second placing recorded by stable runner Filante Etoile in the $100,000 Waikato Times Gold Cup.

Filante Etoile overcame a wide barrier 15 draw to race three and four wide over the closing 800 metres and was run down in the final stride when beaten a head by the favourite, Kerry O'Reilly.

"If you reverse the barrier draws that Filante Etoile and Kerry O'Reilly started from there's no doubt that you would have reversed the result.

"We ended up racing wide and giving Kerry O'Reilly a nice cart into the race and he didn't have to cover as much ground as we did.

"I'm not sure what the owners will do with her now - she might be served by Zabeel or race in the City Of Auckland Cup on January 1 at Ellerslie."


- HERALD ON SUNDAY