Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
West Australian-bred five-year-old Manning ended an eleven-month drought when he broke through for an overdue win in the 1730m Barbagallo In Osborne Park Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He has been quite frustrating for driver Maddison Brown with his lackadaisical attitude. But Brown has certainly formed a splendid association with the Sportswriter gelding, having been in the sulky for all of his most recent ten wins in a lucrative career of 14 wins and 11 placings from 56 starts for earnings of $208,213 which has provided plenty of excitement for members of the Trotsynd No. 16 syndicate.
Bred by Steve Johnson, Manning has proved quite a bargain, having been purchased for $19,000 at the 2019 APG Perth yearling sale.
Manning, the $2.80 favourite from barrier two, raced in the breeze outside the $4.60 third fancy Cheer The Major before taking a narrow lead 550m from home, but appearing to be struggling to maintain his advantage over Cheer The Major. Finally, he gathered momentum and dashed away from his rivals to win easily by two lengths from Cheer The Major.
“Down the back straight in the final lap I gave Manning his head a bit in a bid to get to the front,” said Brown. “But he didn’t want to go. He decided he would do his usual and stop travelling down the back. I started yelling at him and he found another gear. He has been like that lately, not doing a hundred per cent down the back, and then going again up the straight.”