ADALISSA WINS WITH A DEGREE OF COMFORT

By Graham Potter | Thursday, December 23, 2021

The Michael Nolan trained Adalissa was certainly due for a win when she went out to contest a Maiden Plate over 1880m at Toowoomba on December 23.

The lightly raced four-year-old daughter of Spill The Beans had been placed in her three starts leading in this race … in fact, had done everything but win back on November 17 when touched off by the narrowest of margins. A third place and a second place finish (when only beaten by a length) followed that disappointment.

She looked well set for this race but, while she did start as a $2.20 favourite, she did have a market rival in the form of Coerced ($2.40) with Burn The Boats ($8) being the only other runner in the eight horse field to be quoted in single figures on the betting boards.

Mark du Plessis, who had ridden Adalissa in three of her four previous starts, took the reins again here and he wasted little time in setting Adalissa about her business, making a measured move from the widest draw to slip up and sit just off Coerced, who had taken up the leading role, as the field headed towards the back straight.

When the handbrake was released on A Fair Swear, a $21 outsider who was pulling badly early on, that runner swept to the lead down the back straight. When she did, Du Plessis eased Adalissa past Coerced to once again take up a holding position in second spot.

With A Fair Swear already a spent force in the approach to the home turn, Du Plessis had no hesitation in pushing Adalissa into the lead and she had a couple of lengths advantage on Coerced as the field turned for home, a margin Adalissa was able to hold with a fair degree of comfort by producing a solid run to the line.

In the end Coerced had to settle for third place as Burn The Boats ran on well from behind to claim second spot, but nether of these placed runners ever seriously looked like threatening the Michael Nolan runner who deservedly put her first win on the board at her eighth start.

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