Blair salutes Nathan after Nevele R Final

Harness racing driver Blair Orange showed his appreciation to Nathan Purdon after Treacherous Baby (Captaintreacherous) won the $200,000 Group One Nevele R Three Year Old Fillies Series Final at Addington today.

Purdon trains the three year old filly in partnership with his father Mark, with Nathan running the stable’s busy Rolleston barn and Mark now living in Matamata.

Running into the first corner Zachary Butcher took favourite Duchess Megxit to the front and Orange intent on keeping his filly in touch with her, progressed forward to sit parked. With a lap to run All You Need Is Me came up to sit parked, giving Treacherous Baby the one one. Orange peeled out three wide turning in and his filly wore down the favourite.

“We did that little bit of work early. We got parked, I had a quick look to to see whether the front was there but Zac was pretty keen to stay there. With a lap to run we followed All You Need Is Me. We had to sprint, and wore her (Duchess Megxit) down,” Orange said recounting the race.

TREACHEROUS BABY REPLAY

After the finish line Orange gave his whip a flourish.

“I got great enjoyment out of that. It’s for Nathan and what he’s doing with Mark. Nathan has really helped my driving lately, making me more focussed and putting me on some of these great horses. I’m really proud of this girl. She probably shouldn’t have won today but to her credit she really wanted to beat Duchess Megxit.”

The winning margin was a neck and the time was 2-22.5. The race record of 2-20.4 is held by last year’s winner Millwood Nike.

Treacherous Baby was bred by Braeden and Caroline Whitelock who won the 2010 edition of the race with Treacherous Baby’s dam O Baby.

This is the tenth time Mark has had his name as a trainer on the honours board for this race.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink