The legendary New Zealand Hall of Fame harness racing trainer Roy Purdon was all smiles last night as his promising two year old More The Better cemented favoritism for next Saturday's Sapling Stakes at Ashburton with a narrow but impressive victory in the two year old race at Addington Raceway.
The beautifully bred son of Bettor's Delight from a full sister to the former champion Christian Cullen was thought to be slightly underdone by his connections going into last nights race and was considered vulnerable to both his stablemate Pacing Major and the the Paul Court trained Mongolian Hero.
Wide early for driver Tim Williams in the 1950 metres event, More The Better assumed control from Pacing Major and Ricky May at the 1300 metres and applied plenty of pressure, running the next two quarters under 30 seconds.
Blair Orange brought Mongolian Hero out to challenge at the 600 metres and sat on More The Better's wheel and these three smart two year olds drew away to fight out the finish.
Most of the way up the straight it appeared that first Mongolian Hero and then Pacing Major would get the better of More The Better but it was not to be with the colt proving too strong in a tight finish.
Pacing Major was a head away second with a further head back to a very game Mongolian Hero.
More The Better paced the 1950 metres in a very sharp 2:22.5, a mile rate of 1:57.5 with closing sectionals of 56.6 and 27.1.
More The Better was purchased out of last years New Zealand Premier Yearling Sale at Christchurch by Mark Purdon for $62,500 and he subsequently gifted his father a half share.
Roy has since taken long time friend and racing partner David Levine into his share as well and it appears they are in for a big season with the colt.
Last night Roy was struggling to remember the last time he had won a race as an owner at Addington.
"Well its too long to be honest."
"Probably back when Mark Roy was winning the Derby."
" I won the Oaks down here with Pacific Flight about the same time."
"David is very excited and I have to say it is great to win a race down there again," Roy said.
The gap between drinks is significant with Mark Roy and Pacific Flight which were both co-owned by Roy winning the Derby-Oaks double in 1993 in the hands of Mark Purdon.
Driver Tim Williams was suitably impressed with the winning effort.
"It looked tight in the end but he was cruising half way down the straight and might have eased up a bit."
"I expect he will go to the Sapling Stakes now," Tim said.
With the Sapling Stakes only a week away,last nights three placegetters all gave their supporters plenty of encouragement heading forward to next weeks classic.
Harnesslink Media