Elite Drake gets second win in a week

Saturday 29 June 2019, 5:43pm

In fading light and driving rain, four-year-old gelding Elite Drake has raced to victory at Caulfield to give Alisa Hinch her first Saturday city winner as a trainer.

Elite Drake was backing up in the Catanach's Jewellers Handicap (1400m) after winning at Bendigo last Sunday and the $2.80 favourite didn't disappoint in the final race on Saturday's program, sitting outside the leader under apprentice Teo Nugent before racing to victory.

Special Diva ($20) was a half-length away in second with Miss Mandito another 1-1/4 lengths away third on the rain-affected track.

Hinch, who trains a small team of horses near Geelong and is due to give birth to her second child in about six weeks, said it was a big thrill to get her first Saturday city winner and second win in a week with the gelding Elite Drake.

"I'm rapt," Hinch said.

"We knew we could do it and the rain was a blessing and possibly the darkness was a blessing as well.

"As it (the conditions) got worse we just got happier.

"I thought he was gone at the top of the straight but he's a fighter and that's what he does.

"He hit the line and got the job done."

Hinch plans to run Elite Drake again at Caulfield in two weeks in a bid to continue building his rating.

Elite Drake has now won six of his 22 starts.

Four-year-old Masculino also appreciated the soft conditions earlier in the day, with the gelding scoring a front-running win in the Ladbrokes Back Yourself Handicap (1800m).

Co-trainer Mick Price said they had deliberately given Masculino a light summer campaign with a view to targeting the winter period.

"He's a wet tracker," Price said.

Having his third start of the preparation, which included a last-start third at Flemington, Masculino notched his first win on the campaign and seventh of his career as apprentice Lachlan King carried out a pre-race plan to perfection.

Masculino ($3.40) dictated terms in front with his light weight and kicked strongly around the home turn before beating $2.30 favourite One More Try by 2-1/4 lengths with Guizot another 1-1/4 lengths away third.

"He went straight to the front and I thought he (King) rated him beautifully," Price said.

Melbourne's premier jockey Craig Williams had a winning double aboard two-year-old gelding King Of Hastings and five-year-old gelding Highland Beat.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »