FINANCE TYCOON EARNS NEWMARKET SHOT

Finance Tycoon booked a spot in the G1 Newmarket Handicap in two weeks after a smart all-the-way effort to open the triple Group 1 card at Caulfield on Saturday.

Ridden by Damian Lane, Finance Tycoon jumped straight to the front in the G3 Zeditave Stakes (1200m) and was never headed despite a sustained chasing effort from the runner-up and hot favourite Generation.

‘’He flew the lids and we had a plan today to control the race and let him flow,’’ Lane explained.

‘’I did that and he was too good.’’

Finance Tycoon ($6), ultimately had a three-quarter of a length advantage over Generation ($1.90 fav) on the line with Chartres ($26) running into third, a length and a half away.

Finance Tycoon was trained by the Lindsay Park team when he won last year’s Showdown over the same 1200-metre course at Caulfield.

The Written Tycoon colt was transferred to Danny O’Brien’s stable in the spring, but he only had the one run before falling to a throat complaint that led to surgery and a long spell.

‘’We played to our strengths today,’’ O’Brien said.

‘’Once he began we had that tactic of trying to break them from the front. He ran those really slick sectionals and made it difficult for them to get on his back.’’

O’Brien said the colt showed he was worthy of a huge assignment for his next start.

‘’He’ll only get 50-kilos in the Newmarket so getting him back down the straight - he’s won down the straight so see what he can do there,’’ O’Brien said.

‘’He’ll be really aided by the handicapper. That goes a long way.’’

Jamie Kah could offer no excuses in defeat for Generation who ran the quickest closing splits of the race, his final 400 metres in 22.85 seconds.

"He was a little bit dour," Kah said of the Snitzel colt.

Mars Mission finished last in the five-horse field, beaten 9.25 lengths by Finance Tycoon.

"He was disappointing," Mars Mission's rider Jye McNeil said.

"He hit the turn on the wrong leg and never recovered but it was very low performance towards the expectations we had."

Story by Andrew Eddy for Racing.com

Pic by Racing Photos