STAR Tasmanian pacer Beautide confirmed his status as a genuine contender for w berth in the upcoming Group 1 Miracle Mile (1609m) at Menangle with a brilliant first-up victory on Saturday night.
Sent out the odds-on favourite at $1.40, Beautide (James Rattray) had a duel at the start with the well backed Brave Wiggy ($6.00 into $4.60) with Brave Wiggy winning the battle.
Driver James Rattray was content to settle behind the leader but when the pace slackened at the half-way mark Beautide started to tug a bit and was left slightly flat-footed when the leader sprinted clear at the top of the home straight.
But the beauty of the long Menangle straight is that it enables really good horses to make up ground at the business end of proceedings and that’s exactly what Beautide did.
Rattray called on his charge for the supreme effort 200 metres out and once the gelding had the leader in his sights he gunned him down and went on to score by over four metres from Brave Wiggy with My Dusky Sound seven metres away third.
Beautide had not started for over a month but he was coming off a solid trial win.
It was his fifth win in succession and while this latest win did not guarantee him a berth in the Miracle Mile field he only has to replicate that effort and win next Saturday night’s Newcastle Mile to clinch his place in the elite field.
Beautide is now trained at Menangle by James Rattray who has established stables at John McCarthy’s property at Cobbitty near Menangle.
His father Barrie Rattray, who was last season’s leading trainer and the winner of 13 trainer premierships, will send horses to James on a regular basis with another two expected to arrive this week to take the team’s tally to five.