Make Way thriving but 46 degree forecast sees Leeton meeting postponed

Make Way looks beautifully poised to score a first-up win in Australia - but the heat wave means his New Zealand owners will have to wait a few extra days to see it.

The colt was due to line up in the fifth race on Friday night at Leeton in country New South Wales but with the temperature forecast to soar to 46 degrees, a decision was made today to postpone the meeting until Tuesday.

Kiwi horseman Anthony Butt, who is now preparing the horse for Lincoln Farms along with training partner Sonya Smith, had been planning to avoid the heat of the day by travelling tomorrow to Leeton which is 550km west of Sydney in the Riverina farming region.

“It takes about five hours to get there but it’s straight down the highway.’’

Anthony Butt … Make Way has thrived since arriving in Australia.Butt says while Make Way landed in Australia’s heat wave two weeks ago he settled in well straight away and has thrived since.

“It’s been in the mid-30s a few days but he’s coped with the heat really well.

“It’s only really hot from 11 or 12 onwards and we bring him back into the barn by then where it’s nice and cool anyway.’’

Butt says he hasn’t done anything too serious with Make Way - “we’ve just poked along with him and he’s got better and better. Everything’s gone perfectly.

“He’s really bright and his work this morning was really good.’’

Butt has decided to hand the reins on Make Way and stablemate Vasari (race four) to Chris Geary for the Leeton pipe-opener.

“Chris knows the track and the form really well and he’ll do a good job.’’

Leeton, 550km west of Sydney, has a very short 120 metre home straight.Leeton, while only an 804 metre track, the smallest Make Way will have seen, with a short 120 metre home straight, has pretty good bends, says Butt.

“I don’t think he’ll have any trouble with the track. He’s such a well mannered and beautiful pacer, with great steering.’’

Make Way won’t have any trouble either with the anti-clockwise direction of racing - his two fastest runs were that way round at Cambridge. When beaten a neck, nose and neck in last year’s Two-Year-Old Emerald he clocked 1:53.6. And he also ran fourth in Major Trojan’s 1:54.1 Sires’ Stakes heat last October.

Make Way won’t have to go anywhere near as fast anyway as the field of three-year-olds he meets in the A$15,300 feature is many classes down on the opposition he has raced most of his life.

Six of Make Way’s eight rivals have won only one race and look totally outclassed.

Another, Rollecks, won two races as a two-year-old at Shepparton and Wagga in slow mile rates of 1:59.6 and 2:01.4. He hardly covered himself in glory when resuming at Temora, running third of four, and has drawn three on the second line from where only two winners have come in the last 12 months.

The only rival who looks capable of footing it with Make Way is Major Roll, who has drawn one inside Make Way.

He has won six of nine starts, his best when taking the NSW Breeders’ Challenge at Bathurst last July when pacing the 1730 metres in a mile rate of 1:56.6.

Major Roll resumed with an easy all-the-way win at Parkes, clocking a 2:02.6 mile rate for 2040 metres.

The same day, at Alexandra Park, Make Way ran a terrific fourth behind some of the best three-year-olds in Australasia, Ultimate Sniper, Another Masterpiece and Supreme Dominator, in the $200,000 Sales Series Final (2200m) run at a 1:56.8 mile rate.

Leeton’s track stats … only six start on the front line of the mobile.Butt says so long as you have some horsepower at the start, you can go forward and wrest the lead, a big advantage on the little circuit.

That’s exactly what Vasari did at Leeton two starts back, from five on the gate, when despite being caught three wide early he eventually made the top and scored easily.

“The way Make Way has worked he should have the wood on them,’’ says Butt.

“He’s not too far behind the best of the best but this is a great race for him to kick off in, better than having to run 1:50 at Menangle.’’

Vasari, while drawn badly, would run another good race as well, says Butt.

“He would have won in another stride or two last time at Menangle. They went a bit slow in the mid stages and he was chopping them down at the finish.’’

Beaten a head and half a neck, Vasari ran third in the 1:54.4 mile.

“He lines up every week and is always competitive.’’

Two starts back Vasari won - at Leeton.

Make Way starts from four on the gate, the equal most successful position at Leeton in the last 12 months.