Like so many leaving an Australian Pacing Gold Sale with their latest purchase, Nathan Cahir had dreams of grandeur.
Visions of his acquisition blazing down the home straight under lights, glorious sunset in the background, roses raining down and a grandstand of adoring fans cheering him on.
Well, maybe not quite, but you get the picture.
Come Saturday night, Cahir has the opportunity to realise that dream when said purchase – known on the racetrack as Plains In Heaven – contests the Group One Victoria Cup in Melton.
“Having him in a race like this is the kind of stuff that dreams are made of,” Cahir said. “If you made a list of races you want to win in this state, the Victoria Cup is in the top two along with the Hunter Cup.
“Terry (Cahill) owns him, and when we got him he was a runty and weedy-looking yearling, well-bred, but a backward yearling which had something about him.
“We sort of thought we could buy and work on him, hoping he’d get better as he went on, and that’s how it’s worked out.”
To be driven by Kerryn Manning, Plains In Heaven faces an arduous task from barrier 11. TAB Fixed Odds have the son of Rock N Roll Heaven listed as the $151 rank outsider.
On the other end of the scale, Leap To Fame – ironically purchased via APG during the same year as Plains In Heaven – is the $1.70 favourite from gate eight.
“The Cup certainly wasn’t on the radar with him, but after his last few runs, I felt he deserved a shot,” Cahir said. “He stuck on so well last week that some of the others which had the drop on him in the run couldn’t get past him.
“We didn’t get the draw I was hoping for; in fact, I made a comment I’d love to swap with Grant (Dixon, Leap To Fame), and I’m tipping he’d be happy to swap with me.
“At the end of the day, it is just a starting position, and now it’s a matter of how the race unfolds and what kind of run we get on the night.”
