Rain comes too late to help My Steely Dan

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 25

Rain comes too late to help My Steely Dan

NZPA Sydney The Melbourne rain came too late to help the cause of New Zealand gelding, My Steely Dan, in the sAust2so,ooo Craiglee Stakes (1600 m at Flemington on Saturday, but he was far from disgraced in finishing fourth. Despite the scratching of "Australian Horse of the Year,” Beau Zam, the race still featured a classy field. However, the unfancied New South Wales four-year-old, High Regard, ended up surprising his more illustrious rivals, scoring a one length win over Rancho Ruler, with short-priced favourite, Flotilla, one and three-

quarter lengths away third.

My Steely Dan was always going to be battling to beat some of the fastfinishing gallopers to the line, so jockey Pat Hyland decided to try to force the pace early from the front.

With 400 m to go the New Zealand grey was overhauled by High Regard and then did not have enough zip left to hold off the strong late runs of Rancho Ruler and Flotilla.

Matamata trainer, Tony Gillies, was nevertheless pleased with the courage shown by My Steely Dan and plans to continue his weight-for-age campaign

in the Group One Underwood Stakes (2000 m on September 22 at Caulfield.

The five-year-old’s win in the Liston Stakes (1400 m and his second in the Memsie Stakes (1400 m over the previous two weeks had both been assisted by the soft going. But the rain before the Craiglee Stakes did not soak in to alter the track’s “good” rating. “Steely Dan got outfinished in the straight on the better ground. It was not wet enough for him really as the rain came a bit late,” Gillies said. ? “But it was a gutsy run e|id he kept whacking away.”