Fownes' mainstay Fifty Fifty back on song

Caspar Fownes and Felix Coetzee combined to steal the show at Sha Tin yesterday morning, cleaning up both barrier trial heats on the all-weather track and headlined by honest Fifty Fifty.

Fownes is having a smashing start to the season and the way Fifty Fifty trialled to win the opening heat, the reliable New Zealand-bred galloper will be making his own contribution to the yard's tally in the very near future.

Coetzee bounced Fifty Fifty straight to the front and the son of O'Reilly really enjoyed his front-running role, as he did when scoring over 1,000 metres on the turf at the pre-season trial on September 2.

He was stalked by Manfred Man Ka-leung's top youngster Supreme Gains (Douglas Whyte) all the way and the Anabaa gelding really laid it down to him at the 200m.

Once engaged, these two smart racehorses showed clear superiority over their rivals and opened up a five length gap on them. But although both geldings were asked the same question, Fifty Fifty responded gamely and was holding Supreme Gains in the final analysis to score by a half length.

Fifty Fifty has raced just once this season, finishing ninth to Down Town over 1,200m at the opening meeting on September 10 when the grey ran near course record time of 1:08.5.

Fifty Fifty carried topweight of 131 pounds on that occasion and was caught three wide without cover, so it was not surprising that he was unable to finish off his race.

The near-black gelding trialled again on September 26 and did not appear to be right when finishing third to stablemate Sanziro over 1,050m on the AWT.

But the difference in his action and general wellbeing was evident yesterday and Sanziro gave us a good yardstick, with the Danzero gelding this time finishing 51/2 lengths in arrears of Fifty Fifty.

Supreme Gains lost no caste in defeat, with the five length margin to Sanziro being the only statistic required to remind us this was an above-average trial. The Australian-bred galloper was a determined first-up winner over 1,600m at Sha Tin on September 16 and this trial will have him primed to continue on his winning way when next produced.

Supreme Gains has now won four of his six starts and Man has long-term Derby plans for the gelding, who certainly has the pedigree to run a middle distance, being from the Zabeel mare Foreign Copy, dam of Group One Adelaide Cup (3,200m) winner Cronus. While Fownes would undoubtedly have been delighted with Fifty Fifty, he might equally have been disappointed to see Sanziro fire up so strongly despite the efforts of jockey Gerald Mosse to restrain him.

For most of last season, Fownes spent many hours training Sanziro to relax and settle in his races and to break his tearaway habits.

It worked, but he looked like taking a journey back to the bad old days with a headstrong display here, charging through the pack against Mosse's wishes in the middle stages.

Tom's Six, who was far and way the highest-rated runner in the heat, won as an 89 rater should have against Class Five opposition in the second heat, though Coetzee had to keep at him all the way.

Tom's Six, a son of Danehill's Victoria Derby-winning son Blackfriars, was slow to begin but then was driven up to midfield before the first bend while Simon Yim Hin-keung made the play up front on Shanghai Delight.

In the straight, Coetzee peeled to the outside on Tom's Six and made sure the four-year-old did what he wanted over the concluding stages, eventually posting a 11/4 length margin over Shanghai Delight, with Couldn't Care Less an eye-catching third under Anthony Delpech.