MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, December 20, 2023

The four-year-old gelding Sacred Mission claimed the third win of his career in only his eighth start when he proved to be too strong for his rivals in a Class 3 Handicap over 1650m at Doomben on December 20.

The David Vandyke trained runner was third up here after finishing a close up second, when resuming at Ipswich over 1350m, before finishing third, second-up over 1640m at Doomben ... which translated into two promising runs leading into this latest assignment.

Ryan Maloney, who has been in the saddle for all of Sacred Mission’s runs this preparation, pushed his mount forward from the break and the Vandyke trained runner, the $3.60 second favourite, momentarily matched strides with his market rival Demon Darb ($2.70 favourite) at the head of affairs ... before Maloney eased the son of Sacred Falls into a narrow outright lead going into the first turn.

Taking the field down the back stretch, Sacred Mission increased his lead to a two length margin, travelling at a comfortable gallop, with the balance of the field stretching out behind that.

In the sweep to the home turn, Sacred Mission’s advantage was down to a length from Demon Darb, and these two runners remained the only horses in contention for the race win coming down the home stretch.

With Sacred Mission maintaining a resolute gallop all the way to the line, Demon Darb ... try as he might ... could not find the extra required to reel in the Vandyke trained runner and, in the end, Sacred Mission won well by a decisive 1.35 length margin.

In eight starts, Sacred Mission has only once finished out of the first three placings ... and that was in the 2023 Queensland Derby.

His race record now stands at three wins (over 1350m, 1650m and 2200m), two second places and two third places from those eight starts with $82 350 banked in prize-money.

More articles