Kiwi import El Conqueror lived up to his name during his Australian debut on Friday night.
Having first start for prominent Victorian-based trainer Brent Lilley, El Conqueror subdued his rivals to capture the Swan Hill Trotters’ Cup.
Pleased with El Conqueror’s performance, Lilley plans to follow the country cup circuit for the remainder of spring and throughout summer.
“He’s a nice handy type,” Lilley said. “He has come over from New Zealand lightly-assessed and is pretty good from the stand, so I’ll keep chasing the country cups with him.
“I’ll put him around again in another two or three weeks, but I reckon we’ll have a lot of fun with him.”
With Tristan Larsen in the cart, El Conqueror led from the pole before his stablemate, Maestro, was sent forward to find the front.
Preferring to be at the head of affairs, Larsen quickly angled El Conqueror away from the pegs to reclaim the lead.
Proving too quick along the home straight, the son of Sebastian K completed a two-metre win from Maestro, with Tictok three-and-a-half metres away third.
“He had been working well, so I expected a big run from him,” Lilley said. “They both went well and to fill the quinella is a good result.”
Elsewhere on the card, Tuivasa outclassed his older rivals in the Pacing Cup.
Driven by Mark Pitt, Tuivasa worked to the lead from barrier five before cruising to a four-metre win from Miki Sing, with Curyo Gentleman two metres away third.
Taking his record to five wins and two seconds from eight starts, the Emma Stewart-trained three-year-old rated 1:55.6 over 2240 metres.
