Sting Lika Bee took perhaps his biggest step yet towards claiming a place among the all-time greats of Australasian harness racing with an amazing win in Sunday's $70,000 Group 2 SEW-Eurodrive Kilmore Pacing Cup.
Not only the did the nine-year-old become just the third horse in the 40-year history of the Kilmore Cup to win the race from a handicap of 30 metres or more – and the first since the great Popular Alm 25 years ago – but he did so in track record time after an engrossing battle with Penny Veejay.
It added yet another cup to the son of Walton Hanover’s bulging feature-race cabinet.
Along with this year’s Hankook Tyres Hunter Cup, Sting Lika Bee has also Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Stawell Cups to his name.
It was left to winning driver Daryl Douglas to make an under-stated appraisal of the stallion, who has now won 35 of his 121 starts and almost $950,000 in stakes.
“He’s just a marvellous horse,” Douglas said. You can never underestimate him.”
Despite his daunting 30-metre handicap, Sting Lika Bee was still sent out the warm $2.70 favourite in today’s 3150m race.
After stepping cleanly he had already passed 10-metre markers Smooth Crusa and Reba Rajah going out of the straight the first time and with two laps to go was looking ominous with cover in the three-wide line.
Douglas made his move on Sting Lika Bee a lap-and-a-half from home and by the 1400m mark he had worked to the front despite doing much of the work into the strong breeze that was prevalent on the day.
Not much changed until the 500m mark, which was when Chris Alford unleashed a whirlwind sprint on Penny Veejay and 300m from home it was evident that pair was going to fight out the finish.
Rounding the home turn Penny Veejay looked to have the champ’s measure, but not to be outdone, Sting Lika Bee fought back courageously.
Fifty metres from the line Sting Lika Bee was holding his rival, only to see the Jayne Davies-trained gelding have one last crack over the concluding stages only to fail by the narrowest of margins.
Defending champion Reba Rajah finished strongly for third placing, ahead of last week’s Nyah Cup winner Bold Cruiser.
Sting Lika Bee's mile rate of 2:01.1 took 0.6 of a second off the previous mark, set by Reba Rajah in last year's race.
Douglas was full of praise for Sting Lika Bee after the win.
“We had a fight on our hands on the turn, but he just fought it out all the way and was strong enough to hang on and win,” Douglas said.
Alford, who drove Sting Lika Bee to his Hunter Cup success, said that while he might have looked the winner on a couple of occasions he was never taking anything for granted.
"I just had to make my run a little earlier than I wanted to and having driven Sting Lika Bee before I knew how hard it was going to be to get past him," Alford said.
In an ominous warning, Sting Lika Bee's trainer Brian Tuddenham said his stable star would derive great benefit from the win at what was just his third run back from a spell and his next engagement would be the Legends Mile.
