HANG OUT PREVAILS IN A FRENZIED FINISH

By Graham Potter | Friday, May 9, 2025

Hang Out put his first win on the board in his sixth career start when he landed a Maiden Plate over 1400m at Gatton on May 9.

The Alabama Express gelding had one start for the Archibald stable before transferring to the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership, and the Sears team were able to bring Hang Out to the boil in the second start of his second preparation with them.

Hang Out, who had started at odds of $31 at Ipswich first-up was the $2.70 favourite at Gatton and he duly obliged although he had to work hard for the whole length of the home straight in a finish which saw 0.88 lengths cover the first four horses across the line.

Nozi Tomizawa made good use of the number two barrier to have Hang Out in a close-up fourth spot just two lengths off the lead early.

A forward move approaching the home turn had Hang Out up alongside the leader and Hang Out’s market rival Denito ($3.40) and these two runners then became involved in a protracted, stride-for-stride battle in the run home with Hang Out only managing to gain a narrow advantage over his rival inside the last 50m.

By that stage though Lipstick Lass ($13) and Our Esprit (an $81 bolter) were both flying down the middle of the track and closing late but Hang Out’s effort untimately proved enough as he prevailed by a diminishing 0.29 length margin.