Lining Up again

By Adam Hamilton

DUAL Derby winner Line Up’s quest for a third Derby crown is over … at least for now.

Anthony Butt’s former Kiwi star was due to fly to Perth tonight (Sunday), but the trip of off owing to COVID-19 precautions.

Racing and Wagering Western Australia notified Butt and fiancé Sonya Smith they had imposed a 14-day isolation on interstate visitors.

Plans are now for Line Up to have a let-up and target a Queensland winter raid, possibly the new feature, the Rising Sun and the Queensland Derby.

Hopefully the impact of COVID-19 has passed so what promises to be a huge Queensland Carnival in July goes ahead.

Already the connections of NZ’s best three-year-old boy Copy That, Line Up’s former stablemate, have touted a Queensland trip.

Line Up showed plenty of promise in NZ, but has been a revelation since moving to Butt’s Menangle barn.

He’s raced just five times for Butt for three wins, two seconds and earned $238,800.

Line Up’s omission from the WA Derby leaves Justin Prentice’s exciting local star Major Martini, who made quite the statement winning last Friday night’s $50,000 Group 2 Western Gateway (2536m) at Gloucester Park, a standout.

Major Martini led, copped some midrace pressure and still raced right away to beat stablemate Gardys Legacy, who trailed him, by 10.7m in a 1min57sec mile rate.

It was his sixth win from 13 starts and certainly stamped him as a clear top seed amongst the local crop.

Highly-rated former Kiwi Howard Hughes, who has looked good since joining Team Bond, sat outside Major Martini, but was no match and weakened late for a 17m eighth.

Paul Court’s much-travelled Mach Da Vinci made the trip across after a NSW campaign, but didn’t seemed to handle the tight Gloucester Park bends. He did made good late ground for fifth.