ELLIBABY'S IMPRESSIVE DEBUT WIN

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The David Vandyke stable pulled a long-priced debut winner out of the bag with Ellibaby upstaging her opposition at a starting price of $14 in a Fillies And Mares Maiden Plate over 1200m at Doomben on January 24.

The three-year-old daughter of Merchant Navy had two satisfactory trials leading into this, her first racing assignment, but she was unwanted in the betting with five horses in the nine horse field at shorter odds than she was with the Tony Gollan trained To Wish the clearcut favourite at $2.40.

Kyle Wilson-Taylor pushed Ellibaby forward from the number seven barrier draw and the Vandyke trained runner was quickly up to third then second place, racing one wide, two lengths off the early leader Ashilla ($8).

Ellibaby held her position, tracking Ashilla all the way to the home turn. Early in the home straight Ellibaby still had those two lengths to make up and she took a while to change gears, but when she did she ranged up alongside Ashilla and quickly put an end to the chances of the early leader.

But Ellibaby was now under serious threat from behind from the two Tony Gollan trained runners.

Addition ($6) had emerged as a real threat along the inside running rail, but she lost momentum at a vital stage when having to pause and switch out around the heels of the now tiring Ashilla inside the last 200m. At the same time the favourite To Wish also shifted out into clear running and began to finish off well down the centre of the track.

To Wish closed on Ellibaby with every stride over the concluding stages, but Ellibaby was tough and she maintained a stout, sustained effort to maintain a winning advantage all the way to the line where she won by an official 0.30 length margin ... the result rubber-stamping a thoroughly professional performance, particular given this was her first taste of race action.

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