Finance Tycoon returned to the winner's circle for the first time since April, leading all of the way in the Group 3 Zeditave Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.
The three-year-old colt went into the race as a $6 chance with most online bookmakers, while Generation ($1.60) was heavily backed late to win.
Finance Tycoon hadn't won since April when romping in by 4.5 lengths in the $1 million VOBIS Showdown at this track and distance, so this race was always in the back of trainer Danny O'Brien's mind.
Caulfield once again proved to be a happy hunting ground for the son of Written Tycoon, who ran the race to suit himself and proved too slick over the 1200m.
“We played to our strengths today,” the winning trainer told Racing.com.
“Once he began, we had the tactic of just trying to break them from the front.
“He ran those really slick sectionals and made it really difficult for anything else to get on his back and he was entitled to shorten up late. I thought he was really good.”
Finance Tycoon raced at this meeting 12 months ago, running fourth behind three Group 1 winners – Artorius, Ingratiating and Anamoe – in the Blue Diamond, so O'Brien now has Group 1 targets in mind for his $950,000 earner.
While those runners went on with it in the spring of 2021, Finance Tycoon was sidelined for most of the year while he recovered from a wind operation, so the Group 1-winning trainer has had to be careful with what he has done with the galloper.
The sprinter holds a nomination for the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington in a fortnight, which is likely to be where they will head with the colt next.
Having been handicapped just 50kg for the Group 1 feature down the straight, which O'Brien believes brings him right into this race.
“His wind's not great – he's a horse that's had a wind operation already, so you've always got to be cautious with that,” he said.
“We've found certainly something he does very well, which he did as a two-year-old here in The Showdown, and he's done it here again today which 1200m on pace.
“He'll only have 50kg in the Newmarket, so I think we'll probably get him back down the straight – he's won down the straight – and see what he can do there.”
Finance Tycoon is now a $26 chance for the Newmarket Handicap, which will be run on March 12 over 1200m at Flemington.
Generation finished off well to run second, and he too will likely head to the Newmarket, where he is a $34 hope for the Maher & Eustace stable.