Elegant Christian, a sturdily-built New Zealand-bred gelding, followed a family tradition when he scored a fighting victory in the 2130m TABtouch.Mobi Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
It was his second win from first two starts (after a runaway victory at Pinjarra earlier in the month) to emulate the performance of his dam English Elegance, whom was successful at her first two starts, as a two-year-old at Addington in April-May 2007 before she finished a close third at her next start, in a group 1 $75,000 event for fillies at Alexandra Park.
English Elegance, by American stallion Camtasticus, was retired as a three-year-old with a record of five wins, six placings and $82,936 from 13 starts and Elegant Christian is her sixth foal.
Elegant Christian is trained by Gary Hall sen., who also had Pelusiac, an easy winner at his first two starts, engaged in the race. Gary Hall jun. chose to drive the Washinghton VC gelding in preference to Elegant Christian, who gave Kim Prentice a welcome 52nd birthday present.
Pelusiac, who had won his first two starts by margins of eight lengths and four lengths, was a warm 7/4 on favourite from the outside (barrier two) on the back line. Elegant Christian was drawn out wide, at No. 6 on the front line, but was a well-supported 9/4 second fancy.
Polemarker All Williams (12/1) led for the first 350m before Pelusiac took up the running, with Prentice quickly getting Elegant Christian into the breeze. After a third quarter in 29.4sec., Elegant Christian applied considerable pressure on Pelusiac and got on terms with 220m to travel. Elegant Christian gained the upper hand 100m from home and went on to beat Pelusiac by 1m at a 1.59 rate after the final 400m was covered in 28sec.
Soho Star, the third runner in the race trained by Hall sen., raced in the one-out, one-back position before fighting on to third to give Hall a trifecta result which returned a dividend of $13.40 for a $1 investment.
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