BEING condemned to Out of the Draw status has done little to dent confidence in Always Dancing's prospects in Saturday night's Golden Nursery at Globe Derby.
Successful in a heat during the weekend, Always Dancing's victory was dampened by stewards placing the son of Always B Miki out of the draw after he caused a false start.
"As we were scoring up and coming around the bend, the sun was in his eyes, he then shied at a shadow and jumped right," driver Jayson Finnis explained.
"He was a bit keen and got himself put out of the draw as a result, but it should be fine.
"The draw is done on sex, so the best he could have drawn is four anyway!
"He does plenty of track work coming from behind and finishes off strongly, so it's not a big drama."
Behaving on the second attempt, Always Dancing worked forward to find the lead as early pacemaker, Ohso Kinky, was eased to take a trail.
Never seriously challenged once in front, the gelding cruised to a four-and-a-half metre win from Imposter Boy, with Ohso Kinky battling on to be a short half-head away third.
"He is a big strong bugger which only does what he has to do, which is what he did on Saturday night," Finnis said. "We're very happy with him, and strength wise, he is up with any other two-year-old we've had, plus he's still got plenty of improvement in him."
Trained by Finnis' wife, Alyce, Always Dancing rated 2:00.4 over 1800 metres, with his time 1.1 seconds slower than Lambro Mach in the first heat.
Shirley Not secured the third qualifier in a modest 2:04.8.
"Lambro Mach is the one to beat and I would imagine he will be favourite regardless of where he draws," Finnis said. "We'll certainly be trying our best to win, but it will come down to what kind of run we get on the night."
