Trainer Darren Weir thought Anlon had been beaten but he was thrilled to be proved wrong with the gelding arriving in time to claim the Listed Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington.
Having his first start in stakes company, Anlon ($3.50 favourite) powered down the centre of the track under jockey Dean Yendall and got his head down at the right time to defeat Limes ($3.60) by a nose.
Gig ($19) was 1-1/4 lengths away third in the 1400-metre feature.
“He got there at the right time. I must say I thought the other horse kicked back and got him on the line,” Weir said.
Steven Arnold, who rode the runner-up, also thought he had won.
“Obviously the other horse got the bob in on the line,” Arnold said.
“That’s the way it goes. But he ran great.”
Weir said Anlon had breathing issues and his Warrnambool staff deserved much of the credit for the five-year-old’s good form.
He sent Anlon to Warrnambool so the gelding could train on the beach because the horse was “working too hard on the track” and his preparation wasn’t progressing as Weir had hoped.
“So we just decided to swap things around and head to the beach,” Weir said.
Anlon backed up his win over the same distance at Flemington on New Year’s Day with the stakes success and is likely to progress to the Listed John Dillon Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield in two weeks.
Yendall claimed his second stakes win for the season but thought it was going to come in easier fashion halfway up the straight when he made his run.
The jockey felt he was “going to win by three or four lengths” but Limes kept finding in the run to the line.
“We got the bob in when it counted so it was a great thrill,” Yendall said.
Apprentice Katelyn Mallyon, meanwhile, has made a flying start for Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra after starting a three-month stint with the training partnership at the start of this week.
She bagged a winning double for the Ellerton-Zahra combination at Flemington on Miss Maggiebeel in the Nouvelle Star Handicap (1400m) and Amaethon in the Comedy King Handicap (1600m).
