Mr Illusion wins

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 32

Mr Illusion wins

Special correspondent Sydney The sprinter, Mr Illusion, carried New Zealands hopes all the way from near last to first in the $60,000 Galaxy over 1100 m at Randwick on Saturday. The Sovereign Edition flier scored a fitting revenge on the horses that beat him in the 1000 m Lightning in Melbourne in February. He sat well back in the Galaxy field then sped down the straight to snatch the decision by a head from Nouvelle Star, with Razor Sharp third. His part-owner, Peter McKenzie, said after the race that he had devised a special battle plan with the top Sydney jockey, Kevin Langby, and the rider had stuck to it exactly. “We agreed he needed to be raced well back until into the straight, which is

just what he did,” said Mr McKenzie. “In fact he stuck to the plan so well I was getting worried sick as they came down the straight and the jockey kept holding him back. “Then he let him go and they came bursting home. Langby said to me later ‘you were dead right about that plan’ and he was very impressed with his speed." Mr Illusion’s Galaxy win elevates the horse to group one class, and McKenzie said that put “into limbo” an offer from Californian interests to buy the four-year-old. “It also indemnity's his New Zealand 1000 m record and I think we (McKenzie and the New York-based part-owner, Ben Oster) might just keep him racing for a while,” he said. Mr Illusion will now head north to Brisbane and a sprint campaign there.