John Bateman's Lamington Drive and Matthew Dale's Antilles fought out a thrilling contest at Thoroughbred Park on Wednesday, which had patrons on track reminiscing about the 1986 Cox Plate.
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On that occasion, Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star fought out a gripping two-horse war at Moonee Valley.
This time around Bateman's emerging stayer edged out Antilles with almost 12 lengths back to Dark Alibi in third position.
Antilles led around the bend and seemed to be going the better, but jockey Blaike McDougall gave Lamington Drive full rein and he responded to notch a second career win.
"He's got a high benchmark and I was pretty confident that he'd do something like that today," Bateman said.
"His run the other day at Wagga was a good run, I think it was a benchmark 66.
"Dropping back to a maiden, Class 1 - now that he's shown that he can stay a little bit, last start was his first try over 2000 and then I backed him up over 2000 again today and it looks like he'll stay."
Lamington Drive only joined Bateman's Goulburn stable last year, having started life in Victoria.
He showed potential as a staying three-year-old, but suffered a back injury and didn't race for almost a year.
Under Bateman's tutelage he's slowly improved this preparation, producing a solid effort in Sydney in December before a Christmas Eve placing at Wagga, and Wednesday's win.
"He's had that time off now and he's come back and it doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment, we'll keep poking along with what we've got," Bateman said.
"I took him up to Warwick Farm just to give him a try to see how he'd go up there. He didn't get beaten far so that gave me a bit more confidence to say that we could probably take him back to a Highway if one presents itself in the near future."
McDougall rode a double, also steering home Keith Dryden's Loafing to edge out Bateman's War Deck in the Benchmark 60 Handicap (1600m).
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Luke Pepper trained a winning double - boom mare Affinity Beyond was too speedy in the Federal Handicap (1000m) before Mizno sprung an upset in the last on the program.
Meanwhile, Nick Olive has shelled out $550,000 to buy a filly by Not A Single Doubt at the Magic Millions sales.
The filly is out of Delphic, a three-quarter sister to Group 3 winner Circular.
Delphic is also a half sister to Gergis, formerly trained by Peter Snowden and a winner of seven races in Sydney throughout a 32-race career.
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
