PREPOTENT MAKES IT BACK-TO-BACK WINS WITH A LAST STRIDE VICTORY

By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 10, 2024

Buoyed by a confidence boosting win at Warwick on January 29, Prepotent made it back-to-back wins when landing a hard-fought win in a BM65 Handicap over 1300m at his home base of Toowoomba on February 10.

Karl Zechner, who rode Prepotent so confidently at Warwick, was again in the saddle here as the chestnut son of More Than Ready jumped as the joint second favourite (with another last start Warwick winner, Dazzling Flash) at $4.40. Bean Rocking was the $3.30 race favourite.

Dazzling Flash immediately went out to make every post a winning one while Bean Rocking settled in third place two-and-a-half lengths off the lead in the early part, while Zechner had Prepotent back in fifth place a little under five lengths off the leader ... with the runners basically holding their positions in the sweep to the home turn.

Dazzling Flash was still a free-running leader along the inside on straightening. Bean Rocking had angled wider to get a clear crack at them ... and Prepotent was now right on the back of Bean Rocking, also poised to strike.

It quickly became clear that any runner was going to have to beat Dazzling Flash if they were to claim a win, because there was no let-up in the concentrated effort of the frontrunner.

Halfway up the straight it was also clear that the favourite Bean Rocking wasn’t going to get there, but Prepotent was a different story.

He still had a chance as he went past Bean Rocking and began to close sharply on Dazzling Flash ... and it then it became a case of whether the post would come in time to help the game Dazzling Flash to secure the result, or whether there remained an opportunity for Prepotent to score a last gasp win ... and it was the latter option that came into play.

A last stride victory for Prepotent ... a second successive win ... was in the record books.

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