Allan's charges shaping up for New Year
CHAMPION trainer Ivan Allan went into the Christmas break a winner and the way his team are shaping in their work, he's going to be coming out of it in an equally prolific fashion.
Allan's slow start to the season is now well and truly behind him and the way his Holy Grail and Coach Maniac shaped yesterday these are two to follow in the immediate New Year action.
Holy Grail is maturing into a useful type and appears to have really gone on with it since his reappearance win at the Valley.
He wasn't asked for a serious effort yesterday, just a gentle breeze up the straight in 23.8 seconds for an overall 800-metre hitout in 52.0 seconds.
Coach Maniac ran way beyond his rating last time and seems to have trained on well since. He looked on good terms with himself yesterday, right on top of his game.
Generally, it was a pretty quiet morning and the trackwork tempo won't be picked up until a few days before the meeting taking place at New Year.
But it was pleasing to see Tony Cruz's talented New Zealand import Aggressive Dragon out and about.
Initial attempts at preparing him for the International Bowl had to be scrapped after he developed a small but troublesome growth in his throat.
That is understood to have been removed now and yesterday he came through 1,200 metres under Douglas Whyte in a comfortable one minute, 25.5.
He is unlikely to be ready to run for a while, but he is definitely worth following and could be winning a really good race in the next few months.
Physically, he seems to have thrived since he last raced.
David Hill has Woodside Park going brilliantly since his wide-margin win down the 1,000-metre chute.
A throat operation to clear his wind has made all the difference to him and yesterday's smooth-as-silk piece alongside stablemate Kowloon Jazz followed a quality barrier trial effort on Tuesday morning.
Woodside Park is now into Class Four but his winning run could stretch beyond that grade.
David Hayes' griffin Songs of Victory was backed as if defeat were out of the question before taking the opener yesterday and another Hayes-trained youngster to keep tabs on is the strapping Golden Decade.
He's been catching the eye for some time at trackwork and yesterday went sweetly with Eastern Magnate, who's not bad, either.
