Cable Boy claims thrilling finish to Albany heat of TABtouch Regional Championship Final for Wolfe stable

Consistent sprinter Cable Boy produced a tough first-up win in Albany on Sunday to secure his place in the $100,000 TABtouch Regional Championship Final at Ascot next month. The Steve Wolfe-trained Cable Boy prevailed in a close finish to the Albany heat of the championship, holding out a late challenge from Starauthoress to win by a short head. Jockey Natasha Faithfull had plenty of work to do aboard Cable Boy ($6) after he missed the start and raced wide throughout. The six-year-old gelding was on the move approaching the home corner and ground down stablemate and $3.20 favourite Looks inside the final 200m before the Peter Western-trained Starauthoress ($9) charged strongly down the outside. Cable Boy got up in a photo finish in the $40,000 TABtouch Regional Championship: The Road To Ascot (1230m) with Starauthoress second and Looks holding on for third. It was a fifth career win from 25 career starts for Cable Boy, who had not raced since May this year and was second in a recent 1000m barrier trial. “He’s not a superstar but he’s been working good,” Wolfe said. “He always goes well fresh. “Law of averages, we’ve had about 93 runners without a winner so we had to be getting close. “He’ll go into that (final) now . . . (owner Ron Beacham) has been patient and it was a great ride by Tashy (Natasha Faithfull), missed the start and took the shortcuts.” Cable Boy will head straight into the final over 1200m at Ascot on December 2, with the first five horses across the line in the three heats earning automatic qualification in the feature. Elite Fighter from the Rebecca Bayliss stable and the Roy Rogers-prepared Trevello rounded out the top five. Faithfull finished with a race-to-race double after returning galloper Beau Zoom made a slashing return in the final race at Percy Spencer Racecourse. Now with Bayliss, Beau Zoom at his first start in 620 days, sprinted home strongly to win by a long neck. Earlier, Final Siren brought up the first leg of a winning double for Bayliss, the smart three-year-old demolishing his rivals by more than three lengths to stay unbeaten after two career starts. Albany trainer Paul Hunter and jockey Jason Whiting dominated the early part of the seven-race card — the combination winning the first three races. Lady Gondo and Heeza Beau were impressive maiden winners and then Candijay made it a treble after coming from midfield to claim race three by one length.