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Race favourite Huka Eagle displayed all his fighting qualities when he lifted himself off the canvas to deliver the knockout blow to his rivals in the Tip Top 3YO 1400.

This was on the first day of the Ellerslie Christmas Carnival.

Following in the footsteps of stablemate Allez Eagle, who had won the first race on the Ellerslie card after dominating from the front, Huka Eagle set the pace from an inside barrier but unlike race one this time the Tony Pike trained runner had plenty of opposition who also had designs on a forward position.

Challenged firstly by outsider Buffalo Lass and then the well fancied Ocean Emperor, Huka Eagle and rider Leith Innes maintained a steady clip as they hugged the rail before booting clear as the field turned for the run home.

Those punters who had backed the son of Swiss Ace into favourtism started to feel decidedly sick as firstly Wealth Prince issued a stern challenge before the Jason Bridgman trained filly No Tricks descended on the scene to forge to a half length lead with barely 150 metres to the winning post.

Refusing to yield, Huka Eagle fought back to gain the ascendancy in the shadows of the post to score by a bare nose from No Tricks with Way In running on strongly into third.

“He certainly loves a fight but I wasn’t sure whether he had met his match this time,” noted Pike after the race.

“He is still doing a lot wrong in his races but there’s no doubting his courage as he had plenty of attention during the race and he has kicked back strongly to grab the filly who clearly had his measure at the 200 metre mark.”

Pike is in two minds about the next target for his charge with a tilt at the Gr. 1 Levin Classic at Trentham high on the list of possible targets.

“I’ll sit down and discuss it with his owner but we have either the Levin Classic or the Karaka Mile later in January as the two main options for him next,” he said.

“If he doesn’t go to Trentham then he will have run here on the 10th of January over 1500 metres before coming back a fortnight later for the Karaka Mile.”