AFTER A QUIET OCTOBER, THE MELISSA TAYLOR RACING STABLE IS STARTING TO FIRE UP AGAIN

By Graham Potter | Friday, November 12, 2021

The Melissa Taylor stable sent out five runners over the first two weeks in November … recording three fourth place finishes, a fifth place as well as a tantalisingly close runner-up finish when coming up just short of victory.

The New Zealand bred Tribute King accounted for two of those results.

On November 2, 2021, in a BM65 Handicap over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast, when first up for the stable, the lightly raced four-year-old finished fourth at the long odds of $21.

Just worse than midfield but well back early on, Tribute King still had as much as ten lengths to make up on straightening and, when he did start to accelerate, he had a wall of runners in front of him, spread right across the track.

Sean Cormack had no option but to angle the son of Contributer marginally out to obtain galloping room. As late as approaching the 100m mark, Tribute King still had nine runners in front of him, but he was full of running now and he stuck to his task with meaning, closing with every stride to finish best of all to claim an eye-catching fourth placing.

Ten days later, on November 12 Tribute King was at it again at the Sunshine Coast, this time in a Class 1 Handicap and stretching the distance out to 1400m.

Well fancied at $3.20 on the back of that last promising showing, Tribute King could not have got any closer without winning, the agonisingly close finish going against him in a race he would have won in another half a stride … maybe even less than that!

Tribute King was a lot closer in the running this time, settling in fourth, then fifth down the back stretch, but no more than three lengths off the lead.

Mozart’s Rival ($13) worked to the lead in the start of the sweep to the home turn with Tribute King holding his position at a comfortable gallop, seemingly perfectly poised to strike.

Kyle Wilson-Taylor was holding Mozart’s Rivalup though, saving him up for the run home and the sprint did go on early in the straight. Mozart’s Rival was brave enough, grinding his way home while Tribute King made steady progress in the first half of the straight.

The Taylor trained runner was two lengths back approaching the 200m mark … only a length off Mozart’s Rival with 100m left to run and he just kept on coming and flashed late, but Mozart’s Rival had stayed on just long enough to claim the victory.

That made it two very positive, prize-money earning runs by Tribute King for the Melissa Taylor stable.
Clearly, the stable has something to work with here.
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The other two runners to claim a fourth place result during this time were:

Kudu: Finished fourth at Eagle Farm in a BM75 Handicap over 1200m on November 2, coming in 4.10 lengths behind the in-form Tony Gollan trained Ingear, who was winning for the second time in her last three starts. Kudu, who was first-up here after a two-and-a-half month break from race action, started at $5.

Echoes Of My Mind: Finished fourth at the Sunshine Coast in a Maiden Handicap over 1400m on November 5, finishing 2.40 lengths behind the winner Deep Tempest. This was Echoes Of My Mind’s debut run. She started at a price of $151.

Shongalonga was the runner who finished fifth … in a Maiden Handicap over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast on November 12, 2021. This was also the filly’s debut outing. She jumped at a starting price of $7 and finished 3.40 lengths behind the winner.

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