Our Malabar and Chris Alford on the way to Geelong Cup victory
Lance Justice was the Inter Dominion’s forgotten man a month ago, but all of a sudden the master Melton trainer’s Watpac ID09 stocks are looking pretty good.
He established himself as one of Victoria’s key players for the series to be held on the Gold Coast from March 14 with a dream 24-hour period over the weekend.
on Friday night stable star Smoken Up resumed from a five-month spell with a heartening victory at Ballarat, then on Saturday night at Geelong Our Malabar sealed his spot with a win in the $30,000 Apco Easy Shops Geelong Cup.
The five-year-old put a wretched run of recent bad luck behind him when he zipped home along the sprint lane to prevail in a thrilling finish that delighted his proud trainer.
“It’s been a really good couple of days,” Justice said. “Everything’s starting to fall into place perfectly.
“I’m very, very pleased for Malabar because he hasn’t had a lot of luck and I thought he went terrific (tonight). He’s earnt his way up there (the Gold Coast) now.”
With Justice retaining his place behind ex-Kiwi Ohoka Utah, Chris Alford was given the job aboard Our Malabar in the Geelong Cup and he looked destined to have another hard-luck tale to tell when he was stuck three-back the pegs turning for home.
He trailed Bold Cruiser, who was poised to pounce on Diamonds N Furs as the early leader was showing signs of feeling the pinch after following up a 62.5-second first half of the last mile with a 27.9-second third quarter.
Bold Cruiser hit the lead inside the final 100m and his biggest challenger looked to be Cincinnati Kid, who descended rapidly down the outside, only for Our Malabar to sprout wings when he got use of the sprint lane.
The $18 chance grabbed the lead in the final couple of bounds of a 28.9-second final quarter to score by a half-neck from Bold Cruiser ($4.80) with Cincinnati Kid ($24) a similar margin away in third in the 2:00.4 mile rate.
Zenad ($11) lost no Inter Dominion admirers when he flashed home to grab fourth, beaten just 1-3/4 metres, while $2.90 favourite Mister Swinger offered little in the straight after leading up the three-wide line for the last lap.
Justice paid tribute to Alford for his drive aboard the son of Live Or Die, who has now won 15 of his 55 starts and $130,000 in stakes.
“I had to stick with Ohoka Utah because he’d done nothing wrong in his couple of runs here, but deep down I thought Malabar was a huge chance and Chris drove him perfectly,” Justice said.
