Elite Conquest barrels home
Yabadabadoo also shows up looking good at the trials
In his races, and there have been eight of them, Elite Conquest has looked sluggish and out of it.
He lolls and lounges at or near the rear and it was only on two occasions - last July and August - that he turned on the style to run into the placings.
At the trials yesterday morning it looked like we were going to told the same old story.
Elite Conquest cleared the chute, then dropped back to dead last when the 10-horse field made that first turn on the far side.
His jockey Marc Lerner didn't seem in a hurry to get him going and, when they straightened, his view would have been obstructed by a sea of bobbing bottoms.
Elite Conquest was at least 15 lengths behind the pace set by Our Pinnacle and Silent Force.
Then, with the finish in sight, Lerner got him going. Taken wide out, Elite Conquest was up to the task and over the last 100m, he came barrelling home like a runaway freight train.
Yabadabadoo, ridden by Louis Beuzelin, was also hitting full power and with Our Pin-nacle being the meat in the sandwich, the trio flashed crossed the finish line.
After being dead last, Elite Conquest was first home. A neck away came Our Pinnacle who pipped Yabadabadoo by a shorthead.
Elite Conquest, comatose for most of the 1,000m, had risen to romp home in 60.77sec.
If only he could sometime, somehow, someday bring that trial form to the races... sigh.
We said it before, watch Yabadabadoo the next time he goes comes under starter's orders.
That was after he turned in a good workout on Feb 25.
Well, we will say it again. After all, and although he finished third behind Elite Conquest in that third of four trials yesterday morning, he was striding out like a horse raring to go.
The five-year-old, five-time winner from Michael Clements' barn last raced on Dec 8. It was uneventful and he finished sixth behind Pennywise in the Colonial Chief Stakes.
Cotton-wooled since then, it's only a matter of time before Yabadabadoo returns to active service. A win wouldn't surprise.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
