Madotti held-off a flying In His Stride to record an extremely narrow victory in the 2017 Magic Millions QTIS Open at the Gold Coast this afternoon.
Madotti held-off a flying In His Stride to win the Magic Millions QTIS Open. Photo by: Steve Hart
Tye Angland elected to take up the running in the early stages of Madotti, but he looked to have made an error when he handed up the lead to Miss Cover Girl coming around the bend.
Madotti fought back gallantly and looked as though she had the race won before In His Stride absolutely stormed home in the final 100 metres to almost steal the victory in the shadows of the post.
The photo finish showed the narrowest of margins between Madotti and In His Stride, who it is fair to say was a good thing beaten about being hindered when he first started his run.
Trainer Matthew Dunn admitted after the race that he was surprised to see Angland take up the running on Madotti in the Magic Millions QTIS Open, but he was quick to pay credit to a well-timed ride.
“There is no more deserving horse to win a decent race than Madotti,” Dunn said.
“She has been plagued by bad luck for a long time and it is certainly great to see her get the job done again today.
“I was a little bit surprised to see us in front, but it was a very well-judged ride by Tye and he just let the leader go on straightening.
“He made the right choice to get to the outside of Miss Cover Girl, which we needed to do because when we came around the corner together I thought this wasn’t any good.
“He got to the right part of the track and she did the rest.”
Madotti has been a regular visitor to the Gold Coast for Magic Millions Day and she has accumulated plenty of prizemoney at the meeting.
The daughter of Falvelon finished fourth behind Le Chef in the 2015 edition of the Magic Millions Classic (1200m) and she was far from disgraced when she finished fifth behind Mahuta in a strong edition of the Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) last year.
In His Stride made up tremendous ground in the final stages of the race and the Rex Lipp-trained galloper would likely have got the job done if he found clear running a touch earlier.
The placings were rounded out by Jumbo Prince, who was given a peach of a ride by Blake Shinn.
