3 minute read

Trainer Shane Baertschiger looks to unearthed a very likely type with Stay The Course most impressive on Friday night.

Lining up for his third start, Stay The Course followed up on his eye catching run two back, when storming home to win the second event.

A sectional star behind Storm To Win back in January (20/01), Stay The Course clearly put the writing on the wall and while giving his rivals a big start, he was simply too good.

Ridden by John Powell, Stay The Course settled towards the rear (fence) before pulled to the centre on straightening.

Let rip inside the 400m, Stay The Course wanted to lay in a touch under pressure, but once balanced up he really started to work through his gears.

Savaging the line over the final 200m, Stay The Course hit the front inside the 100m, drawing away to score by three-quarters of a length.

While the bare margin isn't all that impressive, how he won the race certainly is.

A key sectional star, if able to run his race more efficiently (faster earlier), he has close to 3.5L improvement up his sleeve.

Worth noting second placegetter The Iceman ran his race near on perfectly, given a 10/10 by Vlad Duric.

He is open to natural improvement, but question how much he can raise the bar on that effort.

Third placegetter Super Win falls into a similar boat as Stay The Course, as while not as big a mark up, he has more to come based on his effort on Friday night.

Still a very raw galloper, Stay The Course has a big engine and in time could be a Derby contender.

He's bred to get up over 2000m and judging by the way he finished off on Friday night, he should relish the step up to the mile.

It's never easy making the rise to Class 4 company off a maiden win, however Stay The Course is clearly on an upward spiral and it appears within his reach.

On raw times he was only marginally slower than the two Class 3 events on the night and notably ran the quickest last 400m (22.54) of the meeting.

He is very promising and is a must for your blackbook!