Glen Craven and Keayang Steamer romp to victory in the Horsham Cup on Sunday.
The impressive winner of Sunday’s Wimmera Mail Times Horsham Pacing Cup will make his next stop at Shepparton this Saturday night.
Keayang Steamer, who captured his second Horsham Cup success at the weekend (he also won the 2014 Horsham Cup), will line up in the Neatline Homes Shepparton Gold Cup, said winning reinsman Glen Craven.
The Shepparton Cup is worth $75,575 and is a Group 2 standing start race, the perfect lead-in race to one of the Summer of Glory jewels, the Del-Re National A.G. Hunter Cup on February 6.
Keayang Steamer, trained in Terang by Marg Lee, travelled well throughout in the breeze on Sunday before putting his opposition away with a lethal sprint off the back straight.
He went on to win by 6.5 metres in a mile rate of 2:01.3 for the 2700-metre trip, his last 800m covered in 55.5secs.
Five Star Anvil finished second from the one-one, with the two race favourites Mister Mundaka and Im Corzin Terror clocking in third and fourth.
“He was travelling good… It helped that Im Corzin Terror put in a couple of rough ones on the corner,” Craven said.
“He travelled good in the run and always felt strong. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on (leader Mister Mundaka) over the long trip because I was mindful of quality horses coming from behind (if we went too quick)
“He’s come back in really good order. Things didn’t go quite as we would have liked up at Bathurst but hopefully he’ll keep on improving now.”
Keayang Steamer has had six runs this preparation, winning the Maryborough Cup first-up and also scoring victories in the Sokyola Sprint at Melton and the Treuer Memorial (Group 2) at Bankstown, NSW.
Keayang Steamer is a $16 shot for the Good Form Victoria Cup and a $13 chance for the Del-Re National A.G. Hunter Cup with TAB.com.au.
Meanwhile, trainer Dean Braun teamed with driver Nathan Purdon to take out the Im Stately Horsham Trotters Cup (Group 2) on Sunday with eight-year-old squaregaiter Unico Pegasus.
After settling back in the field, Unico Pegasus made his move three-wide down the back before swamping the frontrunners in the home straight to score by 5.1m in 2:05.5 for the 2700-metre standing start trip.
Action Kosmos was second and Lord Liam third.
>> Video replay of Wimmera Mail Times Horsham Pacing Cup
>> Video replay of Im Stately Horsham Trotters Cup
WINNERS’ BREEDING/OWNERSHIP
Im Stately Horsham Trotters Cup
UNICO PEGASUS (By Pegasus Spur out of Chiola’s Gem)
Owners: A P Coniglio, P J Coniglio
Breeder: Dave Gibbons
Wimmera Mail Times Horsham Pacing Cup
KEAYANG STEAMER (By Riverboat King out of Alimar Star)
Owner: Levarg Racing Group
Breeders: M A Lee and A C Craven
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