Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Three-year-old Alta Tribute is a late developer who has surprised his driver Gary Hall Jnr with his ability to win convincingly at his first three starts.
The son of former star pacer Alta Christiano, the $4 third favourite revealed admirable strength when he raced without cover before going on to win by a length from Blaze Away ($3.50), with the $2.30 favourite Mikis Pride a half-head away in third place after setting the pace.
“Early on I never thought he would be a metro horse,” said Hall. “He was hard to get going and to be motivated to run even a 32sec. quarter.
“But in the past month he has come a long way, really quickly. Tonight, he got a bit keen at various stages. He has a fair bit of bottom to him, and he also has a good turn of foot off a sit. As such a big horse he is suited in the breeze, rolling along.”
After middle quarters of 28.7sec. and 28.5sec. Alta Tribute dashed to the front 450m from home and he rated 1.59.5 over 2536m, with a final 400m in 29.1sec.
The WA-bred Alta Tribute, trained by Gary Hall Snr, has earned $22,367 from his three wins from three starts. He is out of the Grinfromeartoear mare Harriet Price, who won at two of her nine starts in New Zealand before racing eight times in WA for one placing, a nose second to Fay Darling at Bunbury in December 2016.
Alta Tribute’s elder full-brother High Price has had 50 starts for right wins, 17 placings and $96,255.