The meteoric rise of Gold Trail continued when he out sprinted a class field in the Canterbury Classic to win the Listed race in a deceptive finish from Desuetude.It was the third successive victory for the Gary Portelli- trained Gold Trail and the fifth of his career, all of which have been over 1100 metres.Thursday's Canterbury Classic was the feature of night racing at Canterbury during the summer and as well Desuetude the field boasted proven stakes performers Hurried Choice, Biscayne Bay an

The meteoric rise of Gold Trail continued when he out sprinted a class field in the Canterbury Classic to win the Listed race in a deceptive finish from Desuetude.

It was the third successive victory for the Gary Portelli- trained Gold Trail and the fifth of his career, all of which have been over 1100 metres.

Thursday's Canterbury Classic was the feature of night racing at Canterbury during the summer and as well Desuetude the field boasted proven stakes performers Hurried Choice, Biscayne Bay and Hairy.

The freegoing Gold Trail was joined in the lead by Goldam who dropped off at the business end of the race and it was left to three-year-old Desuetude, already a dual Group winner, to give chase.

He did and to some it looked as if he had done the job but the photo finish showed that when it counted, Gold Trail had stuck his head down and into the picture to win by a short half head.

"He is such a great little horse to train," Portelli said.

"He struggled to win his maiden.

"It took him about six goes but when he did win it, he won by four lengths.

"And here he is winning a Listed race. You'd just love to have more horses like him in the stable."

Since he won his maiden in March of 2008, Gold Trail has only been out of the placings once in nine starts.

Corey Brown replaced the suspended Chris Munce on Gold Trail after the latter was aboard for his last two starts.

"Gary told me to get to the front and stay there, so that's what I did and the horse did the rest," Brown said.

Gold Trail is owned by Lisa and Glenn Morton whose mother Billie owns Nom Du Jeu, winner of the 2008 AJC Australian Derby and runner-up in the Caufield Cup.

"They are a lucky family and it's a pleasure to train for them," Portelli said.

"We have taken this horse through the grades and now we may possibly even step him up again to a race like the Expressway in a couple of weeks."

Brown, who rides Apache Cat in Saturday's Lightning Stakes at Flemington, found himself on the winning end of another close photo when Natmana beat Pathway in a thriller.