Mark Purdon drives Our Waikiki Beach to victory in his Breeders Crown semi-final.
He came, he saw, he conquered – and Sunday it’s going to take one heck of a run to prevent him doing it all over again in the Group 1 $185,000 Breeders Crown final.
Mark Purdon’s super Somebeachsomewhere gelding Our Waikiki Beach run down talented front runner Iceenothink, from Larry Eastman’s camp, to win his IRT Breeders Crown semi-final.
VIDEO: OWNER TREVOR CASEY DELIGHTED WITH HIS STAR'S WIN
And the Victorian bred, New Zealand trained winner of 22 of his 23 starts looks to have a stranglehold on the competition after a favourable barrier draw placed him in gate two for Sunday's Tabcorp Park final, outside only emergency Carter Bromac.
Leading rivals, who also qualified in last night’s semi-finals at Bendigo, Spiritwriter (barrier 5), Kingofthestars (barrier 6) and Iceenothink (barrier 7) have drawn outside the Kiwi on the front row, while Rock Of America (barrier 8) will likely be on his tail.
Highly rated Kiwi Franco Cristiano, who ran fifth in his heat, will start from the back row, as will semi-final winner Soho Tribecca.
The latter had a shining moment at Bendigo, where he controlled the race after driver Chris Alford found the front from barrier six on the Jayne Davies trained American Ideal colt.
“He’s been running in all the good races this year and just been falling short,” Alford said. “Tonight for him to win a semi of the Breeders Crown is terrific and onwards to the final now.”
VIDEO: CHRIS ALFORD CHATS AFTER SOHO TRIBECCA TAKES HONOURS
Soho Tribecca was brilliant out of the gates to cross Keep On Rocking from gate one, while $1.40 favourite Franco Cristiano had a much more modest start and was swamped from gate four, which left driver John Dunn three-wide until he crept to the breeze mid-race.
Soho Tribecca by contrast was able to do his own thing and when they came knocking at the final bend it was only Geoff Webster’s Keep On Rocking, from the box seat, who threatened.
“(Soho Tribecca) found the front pretty comfortably and the main thing was that he relaxed pretty well the first lap and got it pretty easy,” Alford said. “When the pressure come on and they wanted to get rolling along, if you fight him he doesn’t seem to finish off so I was happy to let him stride and thankfully he held on.”
Soho Tribecca won by a neck in a 1:55.7 mile rate for owner-breeder Rob Watson. “He’s had a lot of horses over the years Rob and he does put a lot of money in and so he deserves every winner he gets,” Alford said.
The mile rate was 0.5 quicker than semi-final two, which ran as expected with Iceenothink leading and Our Waikiki Beach taking his back from barrier eight.
It was then a waiting game until the sprint lane opened for Purdon, who gave Our Waikiki Beach a gentle urging and he found the front to win by 2.9m in a 27.9 final quarter, delighting part-owner Trevor Casey.
“We had to drive him that way and hope for luck,” Mr Casey said. “We got it and that was our main mission (tonight).”
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Michael Howard (HRV Media/Communications Co-Ordinator)
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