The David Vandyke stable is seldom without a good horse in its ranks and, while it is still relatively early days in the racing career of the lightly raced four-year-old Beast Mode, there will be plenty of people monitoring the progress of this son of Better Than Ready moving forward after he resumed with a commanding win in a Class 3 Handicap over 1000m at Eagle Farm yesterday following a five month break from race action.
In what is a Vandyke trademark, Beast Mode has been brought along in a very patient fashion by his trainer which has allowed him to gather race experience in a steady and unrushed fashion, while also building the horses confidence due to the stable’s superb placement of the horse … a combination of factors which has helped Beast Mode take his current record to four wins and two runner-up finishes from only six starts.
The Beast Mode story has an interesting background … even before he stepped out to race for the first time. He started off in the Lee Freedman stable before transferring to the Tony Gollan yard, but he did not race for either trainer before moving again, this time to the David Vandyke stable.
Beast Mode did not race as a two-year-old. He only made his debut four months into his three-year-old season, and he wasted no time in announcing his arrival on the scene by winning three races in succession in a six-week winning blitz, very quickly making up for any lost time.
The two runner-up finishes that followed were also notable in terms of the horses that beat him to the line … All That Pizzazz, who would go on to win the $500 000 Jewel at his next start, and Chinny Boom, who, in the race where Beast Mode finished second, was recording her sixth win in seven starts.
So, when Beast Mode stepped out yesterday at Eagle Farm, his credentials, while not flawless, were sparkling, a fact well and truly bought into by punters with Beast Mode backed virtually to the exclusion of the field to start at the very restricted odds of $1.60.
And the result was never in doubt.
Beast Mode found the lead early … was quickly challenged for that position … just as quickly reasserted his authority … held the advantage at a measured gallop till the home straight … kicked away strongly mid-straight … and stayed on well enough to see off the late challenge of Warrioress.
While this was only a Class 3 contest, the performance had to translate to a very pleasing first-up run for the connections of Beast Mode, who would hope that this is just a taste of things to come with the astute Vandyke in his corner sure to plot a precise path forward.
Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but, right now, Beast Mode is clearly a name for the ‘horses to watch’ notebook.
