Fine Wine claimed some notable scalps when gamely taking the five-furlong BetUK Over 40,000 Live Streamed Races Conditions Stakes at Newcastle this evening, a Fast-Track Qualifier for the £150,000 All-Weather Sprint Championships.
The five-year-old had already made great progress for Scott Dixon prior to tonight’s career-best effort, winning six times over the last 13 months and elevating his rating from 68 to 99.
Taking up his customary front-running role under Kieran O’Neill, the 9/1 chance was shadowed by Irish challenger Logo Hunter, Tone The Barone and Exalted Angel as the nine runners came up the centre of the track.
Fine Wine made his bid for glory approaching the final two furlongs and soon faced strong challenges on either side, but neither Exalted Angel nor Logo Hunter could quite get on terms.
Fine Wine continued to find and pulled three-quarters of a length clear of Exalted Angel at the line, with Logo Hunter a further half-length back in third. The 11/8 favourite Art Power finished sixth after failing to land a blow.
Dixon said: “That was a career-best from Fine Wine. The plan now will be a 0-105 handicap at Southwell on New Year’s Day and then we will see how we go between then and Finals Day.
“The six furlongs will be a question mark in the final, but the horse was moving away from them at the line tonight. At the end of the day, when you have your ticket booked for a £150,000 race, you have to give it a go even if six furlongs might not be his optimum.”
Regarding Fine Wine’s improvement, Dixon added: “We claimed him from France and he had a tooth problem, which took him quite a while to get over. Once we solved that, he started to blossom and additionally the blinkers have made a big difference.
“When we first started exercising him, everyone who rode him said he felt like a two-mile chaser, but we put the blinkers on and the whole picture changed. He is very easy to train as you don’t want sprinters doing too much, so we only put them on when he works. He goes from doing everything in first gear without them to doing everything in top gear. It is like having two different horses.”
O’Neill said: “It is always hard to win here from the front and I thought that was the thing that would get Fine Wine beat today.
“I was able to jump out and get a nice breather into him for the first two furlongs. I then kicked on two and a half down and he battled well.
“You had Art Power rated 114 and the horse over from Ireland rated 110. Fine Wine was rated 99 but I said to Scott after I got off him the last day that he is a proper horse. If he stays sound and everything goes right, he should be competitive in the big races.”
