Monster trotter Iamamenace in his breakthrough Vicbred win.
It’s not often a Sunday afternoon restricted win in a $3500 stakes race delivers the highs of Group 1 glory, but Peter Cormican has enjoyed few moments greater than his Shepparton triumph.
“It was a big thrill,” he said. “I got just as much of a kick out of that as anything else.”
The source of his joy was the hulking six-year-old trotter Imamenace, who has been lightly raced since bursting on to the scene as a three-year-old when he captured a Vicbred Group 1 title in his second start.
At that stage the Eilean Donon gelding seemed to have the world at his gigantic hooves, but some 954 days would pass before he would salute again.
It has been reward for patience for Cormican and his wife Shirley, who leases the horse from Iamamenace’s owners and breeders Peter and Carmel Shellie.
The July 4, 2014, Vicbred win put $36,300 in to the owners' coffers, but a bid for further Group 1 success in the Victoria Trotters Derby two weeks later was unsuccessful when he struggled for a run and then tired.
The head-strong trotter was spelled before returning for a three-race stint in the Central Victorian Trotting Championships in January 2015, but he broke in all three starts and repeated the dose on a one-and-done return at Gunbower on November 22.
It was during the latter that he suffered a tendon injury, which would see him put out to pasture for a prolonged period.
“Everything went pear-shaped after Vicbred,” Cormican said. “We had him in the Derby and he didn’t get a run and then the Victorian Trotters Championships and he didn’t seem to handle Charlton all that well.”
And then came the injury, which wasn’t serious but required more time away from the track.
“He’s been back in work since September after eight months off,” Cormican said. “I have had him up and running and then trialled him and he was terrible.
“This time in he’s been better. He’s just so big, he’s a monster. He’s headstrong and can be a bit naughty.”
But he is talented, which has helped fuel Cormican’s willingness to persist.
“I had to have another crack at him and hope we could sort him out and find a few races for him.
“We get up at five in the morning to work him and sometimes that’s in the heat of summer or the cold of winter and to get some reward meant a lot.
“I think he will go through his grades. He had pulled up good and we will look at putting him in another race at Shepparton on February 22.”
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Michael Howard (HRV Media/Communications Co-Ordinator)
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