Gun Victorian pacer Tanabi Bromac is a big chance of adding to his haul of three Choice Hotels Country Cup wins this Sunday at Kilmore
He may take longer than an antique music box to wind up, but brilliant Elmore six-year-old Tanabi Bromac is peaking at just the right time ahead of this Sunday’s $70,000 Group 2 SEW-Eurodrive Kilmore Cup.
Notoriously slow to find his feet following a spell, the Victoria Derby winning son of Live or Die showed he was finally nearing his peak after six runs this campaign with a breathtaking victory at Tabcorp Park last week.
And as a three-time Choice Hotels Country Cup winner already, that spells bad news for his rivals approaching the 3150-metre stand start feature this weekend.
“It does take him a few runs to come to hand, he’s a little bit of a pig and he does get pretty fat inside,” the six-year-old's trainer Keith Cotchin revealed.
“He’s just one of those horses that’s not a great trackworker and takes a little bit of time to really tighten up, which he’s starting to now.
“I still think he can be even better than what he is at the moment, but he’s not far away at the minute, not far away at all.”
A dangerous sit-sprinter with a blistering turn of foot in his formative days, Tanabi Bromac has developed under Cotchin’s tutelage into a consummate Country Cup horse.
Brilliant from behind the tapes, last season’s Horsham and Shepparton Cup winner has reinvented himself as a bold and brave front-running stayer, surprising even the man who oversaw his metamorphosis.
And with his near-to-perfect gate two draw likely to see regular reinsman Gavin Lang catapult him to the front of affairs soon after the start, Cotchin’s pride and joy might just snare one of the biggest prizes in regional racing.
“Look, I never thought he’d make a stand start horse, it was only as a four-year-old that I just thought that we needed to have a look at the Country Cups with him,” Cotchin conceded.
“He really surprised me, he’s such a good beginner and he loves the longer trips, so it’s been great for him.
“His wins in the Horsham and Shepparton Cups were very good, but to win the Kilmore Cup would be something else.
“Everybody sort of just wants one racing on Kilmore Cup day if they’ve got one going well enough, so to have one with a live chance in the Cup is a huge thrill, it feels very important.”
