Draw puts Bostonian in box seat for sprint

IT is advantage Bostonian in the countdown to one of the races of the season at Ellerslie on Tuesday.

The market for the $200,000 Railway Stakes was turned upside down yesterday when secondfavourite Bostonian drew perfectly at barrier 5, but, just as importantly, glamour mares Melody Belle and Volpe Veloce drew the two extreme outside barriers.

Bostonian will now deserve to edge close to favouritism, and longterm favourite Melody Belle will face one of the biggest tests of her career.

She is unbeaten this season and has thrilled the Te Akau operation with her recent track gallops, but the wide barrier draws can be killers in sprint races at Ellerslie and that is made even more tricky by the enormous amount of speed drawn inside her.

‘‘We will have to put our thinking caps on,’’ John Galvin, syndicate manager for Melody Belle, said.

While Melody Belle might spend Tuesday afternoon seeing plenty of Ellerslie, Bostonian’s trainer Tony Pike was cautiously confident after Bostonian got the draw he wanted.

‘‘You never really know with draws but it looks ideal,’’ Pike said.

‘‘From there he should be able to settle one off not far from the speed, which looks likely to be fast.

‘‘And that will suit us because he is probably really a true 1400m horse so a hardrun 1200m is his thing. And that might make it hard for those drawn out wide, too.’’

Pike admits in the battle of the flying 4yrolds, Melody Belle would deserve top billing, all things being equal.

‘‘Her form is group 1 form and if the two of them were drawn alongside each other then she would clearly deserve to be favourite. But I think we get our chance now.’’

Raceday rider Vinny Colgan galloped Bostonian on the Cambridge course proper on Tuesday and both he and Pike believe he is spot on.

‘‘He races best fresh and the timing for this race has been ideal,’’ Pike said.

‘‘He won at Counties five weeks ago and has had a good gallop at Te Rapa since and went up to Ellerslie last week to gallop on the course proper.

‘‘So he is exactly where we want him to be although this does look a very good Railway field.’’

Pike is just as thrilled with barrier 5 for Whiskey Neat in the $70,000 Eclipse Stakes, the feature juvenile race of the carnival.

A stunning 10length winner on debut, Whiskey Neat was allowed to skip Boxing Day because of the heavy track but has drawn inside key rivals Aotea Lad (8) and Exuberant (7) in the 1200m dash which shapes as a crucial form leadup to the Karaka Million on January 26.