Several fine runs from elite pacers

Punters waiting for the second Tuesday in November to come around will be replaying last night’s New Brighton Cup at Addington a lot — but not necessarily to look at the winner.

Yes, Franco Nelson came off the back of Christen Me to win the traditional 2600m lead-up to the New Zealand Cup — yet another salute to the hard work put into the entire by trainer Robert Dunn and his son, John, at Woodend Beach.

But the runs of the Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen-trained pair of Lazarus (third) and Have Faith In Me (fourth) were impossible to ignore.

Lazarus settled four back on the markers and made up huge ground on a last 400m of 27.3 seconds to finish within two lengths of Franco Nelson.

He was immediately shortened into a $2.70 favourite for the cup  by  the New Zealand TAB bookmarkers, with Have Faith In Me moved to $2.90.

Have Faith In Me tangled away, and had to work three-wide by himself from the 700m.

He was not asked for the supreme effort by driver Natalie Rasmussen, and will lose no admirers from his solo effort out wide.

Earlier on, You Gotta Have Faith — a close relation to Have Faith In Me — stacked up his rivals before sprinting home to win a heat of the sires stakes series and booking his place in the final on New Zealand Cup day.

You Gotta Have Faith took over from his All Stars Stables stablemate, Bettor Be Gold, with 1300m to go, and paced soft sectionals before sprinting the last 400m in 26.7sec.

Afterdinnerspeaker finished well up the passing lane  for  second but Bettor Be Gold was  disappointing after trailing for the last lap, fading to sixth.

In the feature trot, driver Dexter Dunn rated Bordeaux to perfection in a front-running role to hold off Alley Way by 1 lengths.

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