Great drive wins Taylor Mile

We wouldn’t see a better drive than the one Bob Butt produced tonight at Alexandra Park when he reined The Lazarus Effect (Lazarus) to win the G1 $100,000 Dawson Harford Taylor Mile.

Doo You Want Me and driver Tony Herlihy blasted the gate early with Sooner The Better up to challenge. Butt and The Lazarus Effect could have dropped into three back on the inside but when he saw Swayzee coming he decided to stay off the inside running line. At that point The Lazarus Effect got keen and kept Swayzee out three wide before Butt took his charge to the front with a lap to run, leaving Swayzee parked.

“When Swayzee was coming I would have liked to have trailed him. But this fella just got too keen,” Butt said.

At the 400 The Lazarus Effect found more steam and started to gap the field. Straightening up, Butt had a five length buffer on the chasing bunch. Although understandably, The Lazarus Effect was shortening his stride at the post he hung on to win by a length with Got The Chocolates storming home late. A very brave Swayzee picked himself up to run third.

THE LAZARUS EFFECT REPLAY

“I’m feeling ecstatic now but I was a bit worried during the race. I put the dollies on him and he hadn’t had them on for a long time. Once Swayzee got up beside me and Cam (Hart) was roaring at him he got on the bit and pulled. It was a good effort to keep going.”

Raced by the Alabar Syndicate, the win was The Lazarus Effect’s eleventh in just seventeen starts and it brings his earning to over $265,000.

“Horses like this don’t come along every day.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink