More sweet success

By John Dunne (HRV)

Myrniong driver Greg Sugars, seemingly could do little wrong at last Saturday night’s Geelong Pacing Cup meeting.

Sugars drove winners in his first three drives before a slight hiccup in the McNamara Trotters Cup where an aggressive drive on One Over All resulted in a third placing behind Harry Stamper.

Half an hour later Sugars bounced back when he absconded with the Cup aboard Mach Dan who completed popular back to back wins in the Group 3 feature.

The Emma Stewart trained Mach Dan easily crossed to the lead at the start and Sugars proceeded to ‘drop anchor’ as the $1.65 favorite Rock N Roll Doo opted to sit several lengths away leading the outside horses.

Devoid of any pressure whatsoever, the leader ambled through the Cup lead time in 1:17.2, the slowest on record, before barely raising the tempo in a pedestrian like 33.1 first quarter of the last mile.

Not surprisingly, Sugars allowed Mach Dan ($5) more rein with a lap to travel and he proceeded to reel off a slick 53.4 last 800 metres giving nothing else a chance holding a metre margin on the line over Major Moth with Rock N Roll Doo four metres away third in a mile rate of 2:00.9.

Sugars admitted he didn’t expect to be able to dictate the terms of the race to suit himself in such a manner.

“Once I crossed pretty comfortably then I thought it’s our race to lose now and obviously the first lap was pretty pedestrian for this class of horse and we were able to just turn the race into a 1200 metre dash,” Sugars said.

“I was very confident once I found the top so easily and to get that first lap that easily I would have been disappointed if he didn’t finish the race off as well as what he did,” he said.

Mach Dan is raced by Team Zav comprising Danny and Jo Zavitsanos who were naturally delighted to win a second consecutive home town cup.

The opening race on the card saw Sugars team up with Myrniong trainer Jess Tubbs, to capture the Barwon FM Pace, a distance of 2100 metres, with Fighter Command, in a mile rate of 1.57.0.

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Earlier in the night emerging four-year-old trotter Harry Stamper made it two wins from as many starts this campaign when he took out the McNamara Memorial Trotters Cup at Geelong.

Punters deemed the Cup a race in three with the heavily backed Kyvalley Hotspot sent out a $2.40 favorite ahead of Harry Stamper and One Over All on the second line of betting at $3.70.

James Herbertson was content to allow Harry Stamper time to balance from his 10 metre handicap before settling at the rear of the field after the 30 metre back maker One Over All made a mid-race move towards the lead.

Harry Stamper showed a slick turn of foot when Herbertson pulled out three wide at the 400 metre mark and the son of Majestic Son quickly rounded up his rivals around the home turn before bounding away to score by five meters from Vic tree Hill and One Over All.

Herbertson said the Joe Pace prepared trotter made light work of gathering in the leaders.

“It was a good solid temp from the 1200 and he cornered that well that he was making up ground when they were running good times,” Herbertson said.

However, Herbertson said Harry Stamper has a tendency to lose concentration at times in the home straight.

“He knocked off again when he got in front, he probably should have won by 10 (metres) again but he’s just a lovely horse,” he said.

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South Australian trotter Aldebaran Dexta made a clean sweep of The Lang Trot series when he led all the way in the Final at Geelong.

The winner of the two heats conducted at Warragul and Geelong, Aldebaran Dexta stepped cleanly from his front row draw and Myrniong driver Greg Sugars rated the race to suit himself, and respected postilion barely moved a muscle in the sulky as Aldebaran Dexta cruised to the line ahead of Good Heart and Herecomes Kyvalley.