Make Way, comin’ through! Ants to blast out and take easy kill for Kiwi colt at Goulburn

Make Way looks poised to win the easiest A$3600 of his life at Goulburn on Monday.

Lincoln Farms’ good three-year-old, who has paced two excellent races in far stronger company at Menangle in recent weeks, drops way down in grade and will be suited by the longer 2240 metre trip.

A four-race winner who has tackled some of the best three-year-olds in New Zealand with merit, Make Way meets a field comprising two maidens, one a 42-start failure, six horses who had won one race, including one who has had 71 attempts, and three horses who have won just two races at country tracks.

Drawn six on the front line, top horseman Anthony Butt plans to make an early assault for the lead and if he gets there it would be game over.

“There are a couple inside him who can get out but hopefully they’ll look at the tote and relent to him.

“But even if he doesn’t get there it doesn’t matter, he’s pretty adaptable.’’

Form pundits would say $1.50 would be good money for Make Way after his last two runs at Menangle where he has run the fastest sectionals despite drawing the second row and wide on the front.

Anthony Butt and partner Sonya Smith.Two starts back he made up a huge amount of ground to run second to the well regarded Typhoon Stride, clocking 55.9 for his last 800 metres, compared with the winner’s 57.1, pacing 1:53.85 and going under by just five one hundredths of a second.

Last time, on April 23, Butt’s plan to come out fast was wrecked when a rival broke.

“I had to take evasive action and ended up right at the back again.’’

Butt mounted a big run three wide at the 700 metre mark and was forced out five wide turning in when the ones in front of him failed to carry him into the race.

Make Way powered down the stretch to run a close fourth, clocking 55.87 and 27.73, again easily the fastest last 800 and 400 in the race.

His time of 1:52.84 was the quickest he has run since arriving in Australia - and that was achieved three, four and five wide, not against the markers.

“As soon as he gets a decent draw he’ll win one at Menangle,’’ says Butt.

“He’s run great from bad draws in good fields so hopefully he gets the job done on Monday.

“It’s never as easy as you think but Goulburn is a fair track and should suit him.’’

An anti-clockwise track, with a circumference of 1050 metres and a short home straight of 196 metres, Goulburn is well cambered. The track record for 2240 metres is a mile rate of 1:54.2 set by For A Reason in January, 2014.

But the three-year-old record mile rate of 1:58.8 looks well within Make Way’s grasp if the race is run to suit.

“He’s competitive every time he goes around,’’ says Butt. “He’s raced great all the way through, apart from the derby heat when he was crook.’’

In seven starts since joining Butt and his partner Sonya Smith, Make Way has built a formline of 2381224.

Make Way races at 4.12pm NZ time on Monday.