Cullen Bromac stretched his unbeaten run to four in the Youthful Stakes
The Mitty's Youthful Stakes is one of Victoria's time-honoured events for two-year-old colts and geldings and Cullen Bromac proved himself a worthy winner with a gutsy effort in the 2010 edition at Melton's Tabcorp Park.
The high-priced Debbie Quinlan-trained colt overcame early difficulty and a late challenge to keep his unbeaten record in tact in the $20,000 event.
He joined stars including Welcome Advice, Garrys Advice, Safari and last year's winner Renaissance Man on the honour roll, only enhancing driver Jodi Quinlan's opinion of the son of Christian Cullen in the process.
"What he's doing now he's just doing on natural ability," Quinlan said of the $150,000 yearling purchase.
"He got a severe check early but kept pacing then had to run a fair section to get around (to the death) and they didn't crawl after that, so it was a fair effort for him to win."
After the early check, Quinlan didn't hesitate taking Cullen Bromac back to last and it was during a 30-second second split that she moved around to assume the spot outside leader Brick Top.
Quinlan served it up to Brick Top in a 29.4-second third split and while that put paid to the $4 second favourite, Jazz King then threw down the challenge in the home straight.
The $8 chance charged at Cullen Bromac over the concluding stages and looked set to overhaul Cullen Bromac inside the 100m, but the $1.50 favourite fought tenaciously to hold on by a head.
Brick Top fought on to finish just over two metres away in third spot, marginally clear of Did It Alone.
Although they didn't break 30 seconds for the last quarter (30.4), the mile rate was 1:59.7, which satisfied Quinlan.
"Once he had Gavin's horse (Brick Top) beaten he thought it was game over, but then the other horse came down the outside and it was like, 'oh, we've got to go again'," she said. "It was a good effort."
