Greg Sugars steers Tanabi Bromac to victory at Tabcorp Park
Tanabi Bromac stylishly kicked off a campaign aimed at the time-honoured SEW-Eurodrive Kilmore Cup with a win on Friday night at Melton’s Tabcorp Park.
The Keith Cotchin-trained six-year-old outclassed a strong field of C9 or better rivals in the PLM Global Management Pace (2240m).
The 2008 Alabar Victoria Derby champion scored first-up for the first time since winning on debut when he beat classy Lance Justice-trained gelding Hollywood Bromac by a half-neck with the capable Yakuza back in third.
It was the Live Or Die gelding’s first run since the Group 1 Len Smith Mile on April 23, when he beat home all bar Barastoc Grand Circuit star Smoken Up.
The victory took his record to 18 wins from 49 starts with earnings of $372,590.
Cotchin will now plot a path to the $70,000 Group 2 Kilmore Cup on Sunday, October 24 for the star of his Elmore stable.
The night’s other highlights were a trio of Battle Of The Claimers heats, which Bendigo’s Douglas brothers put their stamp on.
While they had to settle for third with $2.50 favourite Our Sand Fly in the opening heat, which was won by the Brent Lilley-trained Palomine in a 1:58 mile rate, Victoria's dominant trainer-driver combination joined forces to score runaway wins in the latter two qualifiers.
Miami Rocket sat parked outside the leader but careered away from his rivals over the final 200 metres for a 6.3m win in 1:57.8, while Dark Duncan cruised home by more than eight metres in 2:00.6 after the rain hit.
The $20,000 Battle Of The Claimers final will be run at Tabcorp Park next Friday night.
The heat wins were two legs of a winning treble for the Douglas boys, who also scored with Our Hillview Gold.
