Elliot Ness can be third-time lucky
Walker-trained runner shines at Tuesday's trials
Stick with Elliot Ness. He may have let you down twice before but he is far from being an "untouchable".
Indeed, if anything, he could be third-time lucky and his form coming out of the trials does attest to that.
The chestnut was one of three trial winners who went below the one-minute mark in their respective trials on Tuesday morning. By far, he looked the best of them all.
From Mark Walker's yard, Elliot Ness came from off the pace to blow them away.
In fourth spot on settling, jockey Vlad Duric allowed him to bowl along, as Bizar Wins led by six lengths hitting the 600m mark.
Like a coiled spring being slowly wound up, Elliot Ness was released at the 250m mark. Right there, the trial was over.
The rest were not going to catch him. Illustrious - from Tim Fitzsimmons' yard - attempted to make a race of it but to no avail. Elliot Ness was simply too smart.
With the wind in his face, he raced away to put 31/2 lengths between himself and Illustrious. Everest, who was having an Official Race Trial - slotted into third spot.
Yes, on that Tuesday morning, it was all about Elliot Ness.
Although he cleaned out the pockets of quite a few racegoers who sent him off as the $20 second pick in his last start and $15 top choice on debut, Elliot Ness is better than that.
Indeed his time of 59.51sec is the fastest he has shown in five trials and it should translate into a win when he next goes to the races.
However, Elliot Ness was not the fastest on that morning when seven trials were run.
In the third hit-out of the day, Nowyousee was humming along when returning a blistering 59.03sec for his romp over the 1,000m.
Like it was with Elliot Ness, the Tan Kah Soon-trained Nowyousee saved the best for last. Content to get the dust kicked back into his face by Fame Star and Muraahib, his rider Noh Senari asked him for an effort only when 200m out.
Like the sprinter that we know he is, Nowyousee went after the leaders, collared them close home to beat Muraahib by three parts of a length. Rocket Star, the mount of Wong Chin Chuen, charged home to take third.
Rocket Star, who ran third to Nepean in the "EW Barker" in November, has yet to make an appearance in the 2021 season.
When he does go to the races, it might pay to have something riding on him.
The manner in which he finished off the trial did suggest he is running into a rich vein of form.
Just for the record, the five who followed Nowyousee home all went below 60sec.
They were Muraahib (59.15sec), Rocket Star (59.18sec), Minister (59.18sec), Grand Koonta (59.30sec) and Fame Star (59.34sec).
Then, there was Heavenly Dancer. From Stephen Gray's yard, he had Duric doing the steering in the second trial of the morning when he ran out the 1,000m in 59.86sec.
His two runs this season produced nothing but he has got two wins and three runner-up finishes and it all goes to show that he has got some engine in the frame of his.
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