Smart Coupe defies odds in Flemington win

Training partners Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra took a gamble with Smart Coupe that has paid a winning dividend at Flemington.

A wet-track duffer, Ellerton and Zahra elected to run Smart Coupe on a soft track in Saturday’s Wingate Avenue Community Centre Trophy.

Zahra explained the pair had walked the Flemington track and said it was in perfect order while luckily the predicted heavy mid-afternoon storm didn’t eventuate.

“We were worried about the soft track,” Zahra said.

“But because there was six or seven hours of drying time and then if the storm did come we could scratch and if it didn’t, we thought we’d be right.

“We walked it Thursday and again this morning and were really happy with how it was.”

One of the outsiders at $31, Zahra thought she had better claims than the odds suggested.

“She was the only stakes-placed horse up the straight as a three-year-old and I didn’t think she was entitled to be those odds,” Zahra said.

“Her form had been mixed on wet tracks but when she got on a firm track at Kyneton she was dominate.

“She’s been up a while so we might send her up the farm for a freshen up, and then find something next month and through the autumn at a better level.”

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