Trainer Cliff Brown saddled two leading hopes in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden 2YO & 3YO race over 1200m on Friday night, and duly obliged - even if it was not quite the result predicted by most.

 

Both Athena and Copacabana were resuming after a long spell, with the skew in the market clearly towards the former ($12 favourite), a filly who gave a peek of her untapped potential as a two-year-old last year, recording three placings in four starts.

 

While the daughter of Nom Du Jeu had not raced for 222 days, Copacabana had also been off racing duty for 195 days. The Showcasing three-year-old did come with some wraps, without really producing anything earth-shattering in three runs last year, but still drew some admirers first-up with a closing quote of $25.

Copacabana (Michael Rodd, on the inside) holds Justice Light (Gerald Mosse) off by a nose.

Athena was certainly looking like the good thing she was made out to be when she came off her handy spot to hit the lead at the 300m for jockey Shafiq Rizuan, but the coup de grace was not working out as it should for a $12 favourite.

 

That was when her stablemate Copacabana (Michael Rodd) came creeping up along the rails to stake his claim. Athena could not win, and it was left to the other Brown half to pick up the slack, and he sure was making a good fist of it.

 

Trouble came brewing when longshot Justice Light (Gerald Mosse) burst through the pack with a decent challenge, but Copacabana dug deep on the inside to repel it by a mere nose on the line.

 

Athena did a good job to hang on for third place another 1 ½ lengths away, 1 ¼ lengths clear of debutant Lim’s Pershing (Vlad Duric). The winning time was 1min 10.61secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.

 

With Brown away on business, his racing manager Chris Bock was beaming even if the yard quinella was ruined by Mark Walker’s roughie. Athena might have to come back for her maiden win, but Bock said she still ran a great race, all things considered.

 

“Copacabana had a hoof issue last prep and we backed him off to give the hoof time to grow out. It was nothing he couldn’t handle,” said Bock.

 

“He also did a lot wrong then. During the break, he had the chance to grow mentally and physically and we also gelded him during that time.

 

“It’s great for his owners who are made up of a mixture of Australians and local owners. Copacabana is their first winner. He’s by Showcasing and has plenty of upsides.

 

“We’re also very happy with Athena’s run. She is looking for more ground and she did very well to run third.”

 

Rodd might have been sitting for the first time on Copacabana, but the assiduous form student has done his homework.

 

“He was very promising when he came here, but we had to cut him and he’s turned it around since,” said the Australian jockey.

 

“He had two soft trials and he was fit and ready for his comeback, but he’s still a very tricky horse. He keeps changing his legs and you have to work really hard on him.

 

“It’s good he won a race as that can only get his confidence up.”