Renowned for his nous in rating frontrunners, Tim Clark has pulled off an Expressway Stakes victory aboard unassuming colt Overpass, claiming the scalp of top three-year-old Anamoe in the process.
Clark took the bull by the horns and steered Overpass to the lead on a track that had been playing to frontrunners racing near the fence.
Grabbing some cheap sectionals mid-race, he set Overpass ($9.50) alight at the top of the straight and the Bjorn Baker-trained galloper was able to outsprint his rivals and fend off Forbidden Love ($5.50) by a half-length.
Starting an easing $2.30 favourite, Anamoe did a tremendous job to come from near-last and grab third another long neck away, clocking just over 33 seconds for his final 600m sectional.
“He has come back enormous to make ground like he did,” Anamoe’s jockey James Mcdonald said.
But the race belonged to Clark and Overpass, who has come a long way since winning his maiden at Orange less than 12 months ago.
“We were able to get a nice lead, back it off through the middle stages and from the 500 he really quickened up,” Clark said.
“He has just raced without much luck from bad gates previously, but he was well primed today with the two trials under his belt. Bjorn had him ready to go.
“Quite obviously he had the track pattern in his favour but in saying that, we were able to use the horse to take advantage of that, where not every horse is adaptable.”
A long-standing commitment to attend a function for a friend meant Baker wasn’t on track to witness the victory by Overpass, something the trainer might do more often after Saturday’s result.
“I might not go to the races anymore,” Baker quipped.
“I said to my team, if he runs well today and he happens to win, it gives us the key to anywhere we want to go.
“I don’t run them out of their grade but I thought enough of him and decided, ‘bugger it, we will have a crack with this bloke’ and it has paid off.”
Overpass had shown glimpses of what was to come in the spring when he was competitive in both the Roman Consul and Coolmore Stud Stakes, the latter at Group 1 level.
He is likely to be nominated for the Newmarket Handicap in Melbourne and if he can continue his climb, even bigger targets down the track.
“There is plenty to think about. There is The Everest, Golden Eagle, there are so many options,” Baker said.
Forbidden Love was responsible for an encouraging return and co-trainer Michael Freedman said the result might have been different with a bit of luck.
“She just needed to get the run that little bit earlier and Hugh (Bowman) thought she would have won,” Freedman said.
“She ran super there on really firm ground, but with the cut in the ground she will be even better.”
