Chris Alford, pictured here on Louvre, was at it again, taking a feature race this past Sunday.
Two feature races highlighted the program at the Wangaratta Harness Racing Club’s once a year fixture last Sunday – the $12,000 Wangaratta Stockfoods & Farm Supplies 2013 Pacing Cup for C7 or better class over 2210 metres and the $10,000 Frank Dimentz Jewellers 2013 Wangaratta Trotters Cup for T5 or better class (D-H) over 2615 metres.
Former Kiwi six-year-old gelding Five Star Anvil now in the care of astute Coimadai trainer Adam Kelly blitzed his rivals in the Pacing Cup.
Driven by Chris Alford, the son of McArdle and Alta Vista began with a wing on every foot from gate four to lead and never at any stage looked to be in danger.
Travelling beautifully, Five Star Anvil coasted to the wire 3.8 metres in advance of the second elect Hall Of Famer which followed him throughout, with Veranjee a neck away in third place after racing in the open. The mile rate 1:59.6.
My High Expectations, a fully American bred rig, is a six-year-old son by Ken Warkentin out of the mare Kovel. He has had a superb season to date winning seven races, making his overall tally 17 from 57 appearances at the races.
Trained and driven by David Aiken at Avenel, My High Expectations was awesome in his Trotters Cup victory.
Starting from a 30-metre backmark, My High Expectations began safely and naturally settled at the rear, before being set alight three wide with two laps to travel, where he slid clear.
Always in complete control, My High Expectations bounded away on turning to register a 19.1-metre victory in a rate of 2:04.0 (final quarter 28.7) over a game Illawong Magic which raced parked for the journey, with Rainbow Jay Jay running on late for third.
