Tierqualo no longer has a wet-track duffer tag following his narrow victory in the Listed Falvelon Handicap at Eagle Farm.Tierqualo ($10) led all the way to record his first win since July last year when he edged out Mr Armstrong ($2.10 fav) by a nose in Saturday's 1200-metre feature.Ever-consistent The Sixties ($4.80) finished third, a further 4-1/2 lengths away.The Falvelon Handicap was due to be run last week but was added to the Tattersall's meeting when the original program was washed out.T
Tierqualo no longer has a wet-track duffer tag following his narrow victory in the Listed Falvelon Handicap at Eagle Farm.
Tierqualo ($10) led all the way to record his first win since July last year when he edged out Mr Armstrong ($2.10 fav) by a nose in Saturday's 1200-metre feature.
Ever-consistent The Sixties ($4.80) finished third, a further 4-1/2 lengths away.
The Falvelon Handicap was due to be run last week but was added to the Tattersall's meeting when the original program was washed out.
Trainer Kelly Doughty conceded thoughts of the race being washed out again crossed her mind when a heavy downpour forced stewards to downgrade the track from an original dead (4) to a heavy (9) in the space of four races.
Tierqualo had never previously raced on a heavy track and Doughty's confidence in the five-year-old handling the conditions wasn't high following two failures on slow tracks.
"It did cross my mind to scratch him just before the race," Doughty said.
"But we thought if Chris (Munce) could give him a cosy run in front he might be able to get away with it.
"I'd been worried all day when the rain came but he likes to lead and I'm stoked he's won."
Doughty also wasn't confident Tierqualo got the bob in on the line to beat Patinack Farm's Mr Armstrong.
"I honestly thought we had just got beaten," Doughty said.
Doughty doubts Tierqualo is up to top grade for the Brisbane winter carnival sprints but intends aiming the son of Sequalo for some of the second-tier races.
"I'll aim him for the Gold Coast Stakes next and then we'll see what to do with him," she said.
The $100,000 Gold Coast Stakes (1200m) will be run on March 17.
Doughty has ruled out aiming Tierqualo for the $150,000 Listed Weetwood Handicap (1200m) at Toowoomba on March 29 because of her dislike of cushion tracks.
Trainer Toby Edmonds scrapped plans to send Essington south for the Group Three Newmarket Handicap (1400m) at Newcastle following the gelding's failure.
Essington missed the start for the second straight time and was never a winning prospect before finishing sixth, almost 10 lengths from Tierqualo.
Edmonds was summoned to the stewards' room to explain the five-year-old's performance which followed his bad barrier behaviour when he stood flat-footed in the starting stalls at Eagle Farm last month.
Edmonds told stewards he would spell Essington immediately.
Jockey Glen Colless said Essington didn't want to jump with the field and believed a spell would be in the sprinter's best interest.