In a great display of tactics, Prussian Vixen managed to hold off fast finishing opponents to notch up the team’s first city winner in the Cleanaway Handicap over 1200m at Mornington on Saturday.
Drawn the outside barrier, the plan was to push forward aggressively from her gate and cross the field to lead heading into the turn. Executed beautifully by Dylan Dunn, Prussian Vixen led the field from the start and was never headed.
Although using up a great deal of her speed at the beginning of the race, she managed to dig deep turning into the straight and skipped a few lengths clear of the field proving enough to hold off the challengers.
The win capped off a remarkably successful 2 months for the 3yo filly. In what has proved to be a masterstroke, trainer Michael Mehegan made the decision to put blinkers on which has seen her produce 3 wins, a second and a third, mostly in city meets.
As Michael explains, “whilst she has always been a consistent performer we felt the introduction of blinkers might be just what was needed to find that extra length”. And indeed it has now taking Prussian Vixen to career stats of 4-4-1 from 14 starts.
April 2 2016