Chris Lang salutes the crowd after winning the 2010 Trotters Inter Dominion Photo by Gary Wild
Chris Lang is now making the Inter Dominion Trotting Grand Final his own after claiming it for the third straight year.
Last night, the master horseman went back to back with stable star Sundons Gift after taking out the $250,000 SEW Eurodrive Inter Dominion Trotters Final at Moonee Valley.
The victory propelled Sundons Gift into elite company, he becomes the first horse since the mighty New Zealand mare Pride Of Petite to claim back to back titles after success in the 1996/97 seasons whilst the other dual winners include the star Australian mare Scotch Notch (1983/85) and Take A Moment(2001/03).
Ironically, Scotch Notch was prepared by Chris' father Graeme.
Sundons Gift is the first Australian trotter to record back to back titles.
The Lang name is synonymous with Inter Dominion Trotting Grand Final victories with Graeme a dual winner whilst Gavin has collected three titles.
All the pre-race talk centred around the Chris Lang stablemates Sundons Gift and Skyvalley for different reasons after the semi-finals the week earlier but after the barrier draw it soon became apparent that Sundons Gift would dominate betting for the event.
At Tuesday's barrier draw, Sundons Gift drew perfectly in gate one whilst rising star Skyvalley drew the opposite end of the track in gate seven.
Punters rallied behind the defending champion and he started as a pronounced favourite.
With his new found confidence, Sundons Gift stepped out nicely and led comfortably from his ace draw and dictated the speed for the 2575m final.
Sundons Gift strolled through the lead time in 73.6 seconds whilst Don King was forced to go forward early, the pressure was on after an opening quarter was posted in 29.7 before backing off on the speed during a 31.8 second split.
Heading down the back for the final time, Sundons Gift travelled well and posted a third quarter of 28.9 before slipping away at the turn whilst his rivals gave chase.
At the finish, Sundons Gift scored comfortably by 9.5 metres over Queensland trotter Kasyanov who chased bravely whilst Skyvalley ran home well out wide for third in a final quarter of 29.7 seconds.
The mile rate was 2.01.0.
“This is super, this horse has done a remarkable job and I'm so proud of him” an excited Lang beamed.
“He felt so strong and I was always confident in the running, that was a superior effort compared to last year” Lang added.
Sundons Gift has now won 29 races from 57 races whilst his earnings have surpassed $789,000.
What does the future hold now for Sundons Gift?
“At this point we won't be heading back to Europe even if we happened to gain an invitation, I haven't really thought of anything but this race with him” Lang said.
“The Rowe Cup in New Zealand is the most likely option at this early point, I will sit down with Neven (Botica – owner) and work it all out” Lang added.
The Gr.1 $250,000 Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park, Auckland is scheduled for May 7.
