Craig Williams and Cliff Brown have combined with Von Hauke (+700) to take out the Group 3 Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap at Flemington, which gave Williams his fifth victory in the race in the last 13 years.
The son of Savabeel appeared to be disappointing to the eye last start but the four-year-old gelding ran appreciated the rise in distance to 1400m and savaged the line late to claim victory.
The race favourite Amenable (-125) led the field from the barriers and beat all bar the winner, as he began to tire in the final 100m after doing all of the hard work into the strong wind.
Savannah Cloud (+290) faded out of the race in the concluding stages to finish third after settling outside the leader, leaving the top two to fight the race out, gapping the rest of the field by 2.5 lengths on the line.
2024 Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap Replay – Von Hauke
Cliff Brown was very pleased with the win of Von Hauke post-race.
“He’s a lovely horse. Today was really significant,” Brown said of the winner.
“He actually relaxed. He was a little keen on the bridle early, but then he relaxed.
“It was significant his last start, back to the 1100, he wanted to get running, he came back and had he learnt a lot.
“His sectionals last start were incredible. You throw them into the deep end for a reason.
“This is a good distance second-up and we’ll go to the mile next time.”
Craig Williams picked up his first win in the race that he has owned in recent times, and he spoke post-race.
“Cliff’s instructions were pretty simple for the horse today; just ride him and don’t dig him because he overraces and takes control,” Williams explained.
“I was very fortunate from his first-up run, he’s had a very good time in between and the right amount of work into him which made it really easy.
“He was nice and relaxed, he didn’t get too keen.
“He seems to change legs through the run but most importantly he wasn’t aggressive and usually takes control of the rider so I was very fortunate that he was well prepared for today.”
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