Most Favorite returned to winning ways in brilliant fashion in the 60,000 Class 4 Premier race over 1000m on Friday.
The second win – long after his debut win in January - certainly brought the smiles back for trainer Shane Baertschiger who had been a little puzzled by the lacklustre runs that he had come up with in the intervening outings.
The only silver lining was his fifth place to smart sprinter Zac Kasa two starts back, a run Baertschiger felt was worthy of some praise for the O’Reilly three-year-old given the impeded run he encountered at a crucial point.
No such traffic issues this time when John Powell set him alight at the top of the straight in the small field whittled down to only seven runners after the withdrawal of Yulong Xiong Ba and Whistling Win.
Settled a lot closer to the head of affairs as compared with his recent runs, Most Favorite ($22) looked a moral when he came with a stout acceleration to collar race-leader and $16 favourite Enthuse (Craig Grylls) while Super Denman (Barend Vorster) was also chiming in in between.
But it was Most Favorite who went grabbing the thicker end of the prizemoney as he posted a solid 1 ¾-length victory from the duelling pair who in the end could not be split for second place. The winning time was 59.74 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.
“It’s a horse I thought a lot of, and he proved me right on debut, but he’s been disappointing after that,” said Baertschiger.
“We probably rode him too far off the pace after that. He was held up two runs back when Zac Kasa won – and that was a good run.
“Tonight, he was in a small field and he got a great ride from JP. That’s the best way to ride him – quiet and just off the speed.”
The Australian jockey, who was among the 10 expat jockeys renewed on Thursday, said that the stars were aligned for Most Favorite on Friday night.
“Shane thought he was above average and he did win at his first start, but he was a bit disappointing afterwards,” said Powell.
“He had the right conditions tonight, was in a handier position, and he was strong to the line.”
Most Favorite has now recorded two wins from six outings for prizemoney in excess of $80,000 for the Auric Stable.
