NEVER GIVE UP SHRUGS OFF OPPOSITION TO SCORE WELL

By Graham Potter | Friday, March 24, 2023

After victories at Doomben and Ipswich on March 22 and March 23 (with He’s The Ultimate and Sacred Mission respectively), the David Vandyke stable produced a winner for the third day in a row when Never Give Up became yet another stable runner who had been primed well enough to win on debut with the Heroic Valour gelding saluting on debut in a Maiden Handicap over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast on March 24.

The now three-year-old had been given one trial as a two-year-old (all the way back in March 2022) and three further trials as a three-year-old before being given the green light to move to race action.

In the last of those trials, on February 21, Never Give Up had beaten Sacred Mission home by a length and, although a trial is a trial and not a race, there was enough to like about that effort, particularly after Sacred Mission came out subsequent to that and won his first start, so it was no real surprise to see Never Give Up start as a clear favourite at $2.70.

Never Give Up jumped well from pole position, but Kyle Wilson-Taylor still had to ask his mount to work a bit in the early part of the race to secure the run of the race in third spot, on the rail, just two lengths off the leader ... travelling well.

All Never Give Up needed was a gap to go through on straightening and, when a gap opened up between the two leaders, Never Give Up needed no second asking and he quickly accelerated past those rivals to establish a clear lead inside the 200m.

The race still had to be won though and for a moment it looked like the $10 chance Miss Bacall make a race of it as she emerged out of the pack, but Never Give Up simply found an extra gear when it mattered most and he comfortably held Miss Bacall to a 1.80 length margin at the line.

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