Mick Stanley takes Young Modern to the front in the home straight.
Young Modern recorded a fifth straight triumph tonight despite sitting parked for the last lap and having to overcome an extreme back-row draw at Tabcorp Park Melton.
The classy four-year-old from the Mick Stanley yard worked to the breeze with a lap and a quarter to go in the 2240-metre 2014/15 VHRSC Memberships On Sale Now Pace, parking outside leader Mark Dennis, who received comfortable first and second quarters of 30.6 and 30.4 seconds.
They picked up the tempo down the back the final time with a 28.1 third quarter of the final mile before Young Modern – by Modern Art out of Christian Cullen mare Our Christine Cullen – struck.
Stanley got to work on straightening and kicked to the lead, with early frontrunner Artoc getting through along the sprint lane to finish 2.6 metres behind the winner in second place, while Allrightythen just held third ahead of Classy Western in fourth and a tiring Mark Dennis in fifth.
Young Modern is now a 10-time winner from 26 starts and he boasts a 1:54.7 winning mile rate, which he clocked in winning his M0 on August 29.
Tonight he scored in 1:56.7, the third quickest rate of the night.
The quickest was a 1:54.2, which occurred in the Battle of the Claimers Final won by eight-year-old Blissfull Hall/Cyclone Candy gelding Maywyns Storm.
The Tony Llewellyn trained pacer came out handlebars down for reinsman Greg Sugars and sped through the first half of the final mile in 58.1 seconds.
Mawywyns Storm, which had won three races already in 2014, made it four by running his rivals off their legs over the final lap, with a third quarter of 27.9 and a final split of 29.1.
Maywyns Storm had five metres to spare over runner-up Brookfield Ruler at the finish, with Catch Your Breath third and Caesar Supreme fourth.
Brookfield Ruler, Jaxon Fella, Catch Your Breath, Rustle Murray and Our Eastwood Cullen were all claimed.
The two feature races at Melton were the Empire Stallions Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic Finals for three-year-olds, both worth $50,000 and afforded Group 2 status.
Kira Jo from the Vivian Tomren stable at Cranbourne captured the fillies’ final despite a gate 11 draw in the 11-horse field, driver Emmett Brosnan guiding the Art Major/Jasper Jo pacer to a half-head win at odds of $30 over runner-up Snip Of Grand, which also started big odds ($63.60).
Glory Daze was third, while odds-on favourite Chilled Desire had plenty go wrong in the run and came in second-last.
The colts and geldings’ final was taken out by Chris Alford trained and driven Spinners Boy (American Ideal/Karamea Mietta), which posted an 8.7-metre win in 1:56.6 over Midnitedelite and Upwardly.
In-form pacer Exciteusinthecity won the Good Form 2.0 The Gammalite over 2760 metres for Terang trainer Darren Cole and talented young reinsman Tim McLean.
Off 10 metres, the son of Metropolitan/Excite began nicely and soon found the lead before holding off a fierce late challenge from Nathan Jack aboard long-shot Our White Knight in the home stretch.
Our White Knight may have even headed Exciteusinthecity late, but the six-year-old last-start Casey Classic winner fought back to notch his third win in five starts.
Exciteusinthecity is now an 18-time winner from 82 starts.
Other winner at Melton were El Paco (Yankee Paco/Kellybrooke) in the Pegasus Club Trotters Handicap, making light work of a 20-metre handicap over 2240 metres to win by 1.2 metres over in-form Quite A Moment, Cool Machrista (Mach Three/Christa) in the TAB $20K Quaddie Jackpot Pace Final over 2240 metres, Wolfpack (Art Major/New Years Babe) in the Tabcorp Park Melton Pace, Whisper Jet (Jeremes Jet/Nitcouche Franco) from pole in the Melton City Council Pace, and Our Miss Vivienne (Safe And Sound/Prettypretty Woman) in a thriller over Missanger Management in the Woodlands Stud Pace over 1720 metres.
