 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1985
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Preux Chevalier victor in the FFA |
West Australian pacingstar Preux Chevalier atoned for his poor effort in the Cup when he easily took the Benson & Hedges NZ Free-For-All.
What was once again expected to be a clash between Preux Chevalier and Roydon Glen again failed to eventuate as Roydon Glen was found out in a killing first quarter in 26 seconds as he fought to wrest the lead off Diamond Moose.
With such a blistering pace on early, Brian Perkins was easily able to extricate Preux Chevalier from what could have been an awkward inside spot from the second line, and he was up to sit outside Roydon Glen at the 1200 metres. But the real fireworks started 200 metres further on, when Anthony Butt, far from being intimidated by the big reputations against him, shot Premiership forward to challenge for the lead. He blasted past the struggling Roydon Glen at the 800 metres, and still had control at the top of the straight.
Though Preux Chevalier easily asserted his superiority and strode away to win by four lengths, Camelot, finishing strongly, had to battle hard to edge past Premiership by a short neck at the line. Enterprise, trapped three wide most of the way, turned in a peak effort to take fourth half a length back, a nose in front of Cup winner Borana, who ran on well without looking like doing any better than a minor placing. Freightman and Comedy Lad shared sixth and were well beaten, while Roydon Glen wilted to eleventh.
Preux Chevalier's time of 2:25.7 was the second fastest in the exciting history of the Free-For-All, but even that was 2.2 seconds outside Armalight's amazing 2:23.5 set back in 1981.
A generous Addington crowd forgave Preux Chevalier his expensive failure in the Cup three days previously, and gave him a rousing reception as he returned to the birdcage.
Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar