Ants: Make Way ‘pushed them over the line’ last week but now he’s drawn the car park

Make Way was dead unlucky at Melton last week, never getting a crack at his rivals, but his extreme outside draw on Friday night threatens to again take him out of play.

Top horseman Anthony Butt, partner of trainer Sonya Smith, had been expecting the horse to be half a run short last week, resuming from a four-month break and a recent cold.

Butt never got to find out just how fit the horse was, however, when after first trailing, then racing three deep on the markers, Make Way became pocketed and was blocked for a run all the way down the home straight.

“It was a shame as he got a good run but didn’t get out at any stage,” says Butt.

“He pushed them over the line. He felt really good and was only jogging at the finish.

“But it could have been a blessing as he didn’t have a hard run first-up.”

Make Way ended up ninth, behind a wall of horses, 8.6 metres from winner Out Of Play, who clocked a mile rate of 1:53.4.

Brad Chisholm … drives Make Way.He backs up on Friday night in the opening sprint over 1720 metres, eligible for the race with claiming junior Brad Chisholm in the cart.

Butt’s junior Ryan Sanderson would have been the pilot but he was hurt in a bad smash at Charlton on Monday, airlifted to hospital with internal bleeding.

“Thankfully Ryan’s all right but it’s a shame for him that he can’t be on the horse as he won on him in his only previous drive.

“But I’m sure Brad will do a good job. He has a lot of experience and has driven a few winners for us before.”

Butt will drive stablemate Wolf Stride, the hot favourite courtesy of his excellent two draw, but says there’s not much between the two horses.

“They’re on a par but Wolf Stride will be very hard to beat from two. He won a Group I in the autumn and he’s the best up-and-coming horse in the stable. He won seven in a row earlier in the year.”

Butt says Make Way’s task will be tough from seven against a couple of handy horses but in a field no harder than the previous week.

“Possibly he could blast out but I’ll have a talk to Brad and we’ll do some study on the form. We’ll have to see how much speed there is inside him.

“But Brad won’t really know what to do ’til the gate leaves. The horse has good gate speed without being blistering.

“He’ll have to decide if he can mooch forward. It’s hard when you go back because you then have to rely on tempo. And he’s going super so we don’t want to see him get too far back.”

Butt reports Make Way’s work has been great since last week’s run.

“If he can get some money from out wide that would be good.

“The draw has killed our hopes a bit but you never know …”

Make Way races at 7.33pm NZ time at Melton on Friday night.