Adamantium powers to Caulfield win

Adamantium secured a deserved maiden victory in the $70,000 Le Pine Funerals Handicap (1100m) for three-year-olds at Caulfield on Saturday.

Trained by Danny O’Brien and ridden by Mark Zahra, Adamantium tasted success for the first time at his third start after filling the placings at Flemington and Ballarat.

Adamantium settled towards the rear in the small seven horse field before ambling out three wide and travelled into the race on the back of Platelet who was posted wide the entire trip.

He was then asked for his supreme effort with a furlong remaining and dashed clear down the outside to defeat the unlucky Sir Fernando by three quarters of a length.

Sir Fernando was held up for a run between runners at the top of the straight before sprinting quickly up along the rail late. Platelet finished third, beaten under a length from the winner.

“Mark (Zahra) rode him well,” O’Brien said.

“We probably got it a bit wrong with him the other day (at Ballarat) when we rode him a bit too aggressively and a good horse of Paddy Payne’s (The Other Sun) cut him down. But the different tactics today paid off.

“Mark had him in a nice spot with cover and he was able to get him moving before the corner. He has got a nice turn of foot."

Zahra echoed O’Brien’s sentiments and suggested the son of Elusive City would be better over further.

“He showed a good turn of foot and got a bit lost when he got there,” Zahra said.

“But he sort of wanted to relax out of the gates so I had to razz him up a little but to get in that three wide running line where I wanted to be.

“From the 600 metre mark he really gave me a nice feel, like he was going to be the one to beat,” he added.

O’Brien purchased Adamantium for $250,000 from the New Zealand Bloodstock Select Sale.

“He is a really nice type of horse. He was the top pick mainly on type because he was a gorgeous yearling,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said he had made no decision on what would be on Adamantium’s agenda.

“He’s certainly a horse we’re hoping goes onto better races.”

“He is still lightly raced so we probably won’t get too clever with him yet but there will be some more races for him this spring.

“He’s a big horse and those types of horses take a while sometimes to find their feet.”

Story by Carl Di Iorio, to view full Virtual Form Guide story click here

Photo by Slickpix, to view Slickpix website click here