THE venue may not match his namesake, but the festivities will be grand if trainer Robert Caruso’s talented youngster can emulate his latest win on Saturday night.
Thanks to his success in a qualifier of the The Allwood during the weekend, Partyatthebeach is considered the leading local chance in the $100,000 Final.
Pleased with the colt’s latest performance – which took his record to two wins and two thirds from four starts – Caruso is quietly confident Partyatthebeach can capture the Group One decider.
“I gave him a good chance in his heat,” Caruso said. “I just felt he needed a bit of luck to win.
“I had no doubt he could qualify for the Final, but with a couple of unraced runners in the field it was difficult to know what to expect.”
Driven by Wayne Hill, Partyatthebeach was pushed forward from barrier four to settle outside Smart Man, which led from gate three.
With the pacemaker galloping around the home turn, Partyatthebeach claimed the front before staving off a late charge from Major Lincoln to score by a metre-and-a-half.
Monsieur Steel was six metres away third.
“He did it tough and fought on well up the straight,” Caruso said. “The leader breaking worked out well for us, but he still had to hold the others off.”
The son of Sunshine Beach rated 2:03.8 for the 1700-metre trip, with his time 5.1 seconds slower than Encipher in the following heat.
Also forced to work overtime in the ‘death seat’, Encipher reached the lead in the last stride to score by a half-head from the frontrunner, Dougs Diva.
Rock To Success was a whopping 53-and-a-half metres away third.
Prepared by Victorian horsewoman Emma Stewart, Encipher, which was making her debut, is owned locally by Tyson Linke.
