Eightfa gobbles up Burger with final run
IT WAS double delight for wily trainer Alby Molino as he picked up a promising quinella in the maiden handicap at Cluden Park yesterday.
It was a crowning moment for four-year-old gelding Eightfa, who excelled in his stable debut after coming up from Victoria last month.
Frankie Edwards gave the gelding by Unencumbered the best possible run sitting three wide with cover for most of the 1300m journey before hitting the accelerator down the home straight.
But it was the work of second-placed Cheese Burger (Pietro Romeo), who faded in the straight, which impressed Molino just as much as his winning charge.
The inexperienced threeyear-old got caught wide down the back straight and was forced to dig deep to lead the field into the home straight before he was swamped by his stablemate.
“I am glad Cheese Burger ran a good race too, but this bloke (Eightfa) was just too good,” Molino said.
“He ran good in the wet the other week (in a jump out). We wanted it a bit dry for him in the going. He has had a couple of seconds at Swan Hill – that is good form. I was glad he put it together.
“He is a bit of an arse (around the stables), but he is a good horse.
“In the last 100m I didn’t think he was going to get (Cheese Burger), but in the end it was just a good run from both of them.”
Molino’s Townsville operation has continued strongly through the COVID-19 pandemic with 10 horses in work at present. The wily trainer praised Racing Queensland for the opportunity to keep working through and suggested the guidelines put in place had worked well in North Queensland.
Charters Towers trainers Ben Williams and Kayla Russell picked up wins in the earlier races while Townsville’s Leigh Wanless was celebrating in the yard after four-year-old mare Miss Flawless stormed through the middle to chase down favourite I Did It Again in the Class 2 Plate (1000m).