Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Making his first appearance in a standing-start event proved to be no problem for former Victorian pacer Hector, who was driven assertively by Mitch Miller to score a most impressive victory in the $50,000 group 2 Garrard’s Horse And Hound Easter Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“It was a twelve out of ten drive by Mitch, an absolute stunner,” said trainer Kim Prentice. “Hector is a well-mannered horse, and the distance (2503m) was right up his alley.
“The plan (from the 10m mark) wasn’t to get to the front early; it was to get away safely. We thought that the better horses would be up there, and that we would race with cover.
“Hector got away well, while a couple of others (including the $2 favourite Taking The Miki and the $3.40 second fancy Street Hawk) galloped at the start.”
Miller didn’t waste any time early and sent Hector forward with a three-wide burst to dash to the front after about 600m. Hector then relished comfortable opening quarters of 31.2sec. and 30.8sec. before giving his rivals little chance by sprinting over the final 400m sections in 28.2sec. and 28.1sec.
Hector won by 5m from Street Hawk, with Taking The Miki finishing a length farther back in third place after both placegetters performing extremely well after missing the start and settling down at the rear.
Tasking The Miki was last in the field of twelve early before Chris Voak dashed the mare forward 550m after the start to move to the breeze. Soon after that Deni Roberts, who followed Taking The Miki’s three-wide forward move, sent Street Hawk to the breeze.
Prentice predicted further successes for Hector, saying: “He is a really nice horse, but it is hard to get a gauge on him because at home he is so lazy. In the better races he will be really good when sitting and is the one doing the chasing while the others are doing the work.”