The John Sadler trained Instructor managed to hold on long enough to win the Sofrana Handicap at Betfair Park this afternoon.

After gaining a convincing lead at the 100m mark, Instructor ($3.50-$4.00EF) started to weaken and held off Sunday Adieu ($11-$15) by only a neck at the finish.

A short neck away third was the fast finishing Eskimo Dan ($13-$16).

The other equal favourite, God's Hand ($3.50-$4.00) was eighth and never looked likely to be competitive.

Instructor "I like the horse, he does everything right", said winning jockey Nicholas Hall.

"It makes my job a lot easier."

Instructor raced today only a week after a luckless run at Flemington, where he was seventh of 12 as favourite.

Unlike last week, where he was ridden by Dan Nikolic and could not get a run, Hall had Instructor out in plenty of time to chase the leader Jabal Tarik.

"It was a good win today in probably what was restricted grade", said Jim Bowler, Racing Manager for owner Lloyd Williams.

Instructor "That's why we brought him back here."

"He races well here, that's two from two on the Hillside and he's raced well on the Lakeside track."

The two runs in a week certainly seem to have taken a lot out of Instructor, which came back to scale looking as if this campaign has gotten to the bottom of him.

Bowler suggested that a rest might be in order.

"I'll leave it to the boss now about what he wants to do."

"He's backed up now from a week ago and I think he'd want to back off."

Jabal Tarik was reported lame in the near foreleg after the race.

Photos: Fiona Tomlin