By MIKE DILLON
Tony Cole made a bold prediction at Avondale last night - Travellin' Man will make a clean sweep of New Zealand's premier sprints this summer.
The underrated sprinter made a good start, racing past favourite Star Satire to win the $60,000 Anziyan Concorde.
Cole was delighted with the win, but it didn't stop him being critical of Greg Childs' handling of Travellin' Man during a Melbourne campaign this year.
"Yes. I'm very disappointed in the way Greg rode the horse over there."
Cole is adamant Travellin' Man can take the $250,000 Lion Red Railway at Ellerslie on New Year's Day and the Telegraph Handicap at Trentham.
Watching the giant-sized Travellin' Man race three wide at the rear of the field and produce a remarkable finish it is difficult to argue against Cole's prediction.
"He should have done it last year, but a few things went wrong," he said.
Travellin' Man was placed in the Railway and the Telegraph.
"They rode against him in this race last year and this time they left him alone," he said.
Part-owner Ray Knight stood Travellin' Man's sire Blues Traveller and said from day one he felt this horse was special.
"He had a different quality about him than most horses."
Despite that, Knight had to quit the horse as a weanling, but put a syndicate together to buy him back as a yearling.
"He had a few problems by that stage, but Tony liked the horse too and we went ahead."
Travellin' Man looks almost too big to be a topline sprinter, but gets over a huge amount of ground once he stretches out.
"Because he's so big it takes him time to balance up, but once he does, look out the rest," said Knight. "He's a hell of a good horse."
Because of his size, Travellin' Man could be vulnerable in a big field racing in tight quarters and was probably not too disadvantaged being wide yesterday.
Knight applauded Cole.
"Tony's been brilliant with him because he's backed off him when the horse needed it."
Punters were gob-smacked by the fact Travellin' Man could pick up Star Satire, who looked certain to win.
Star Satire's rider Michael Coleman was astounded.
"I thought we were going to win by the length of the straight when we got to the front."
That was Star Satire's first run since April, but Coleman said despite what most people would think, it was not lack of conditioning which beat the mare.
"She lost concentration when she got to the front on her own. I gave her a couple with the whip, which probably didn't help the cause - I think she resented it.
"But I had no option but to hit her when she started to pull herself up.
"She'll come out of that race well and she'll run a big race in the Railway.
"She handled the track well but she'll bounce even better off a a faster surface."
Billy Quin took third and Kasman followed the winner wide around the home turn to run on well into fourth.
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