Having knocked on the door and been brave so often Tiger Tara bashed it down with a barnstorming victory in the 2018 TAB Pacing Inter Dominion Championship.
A take-no-prisoners Todd McCarthy drive shot Kevin Pizzuto’s pacer to the lead in the early stages and with a 26.2-second third quarter and a track record smashing 1:53.9 mile rate he broke their hearts to salute in style.
After an enormous campaign that stretches back to October’s Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup win and a brave second in the New Zealand Trotting Cup, McCarthy and Tiger Tara got the one they wanted: the $500,000 Group 1.
“I think it’s going to take a while to sink in but at the moment it’s unbelievable,” McCarthy said.
“They are sensational these nights. The crowd is amazing, just an unbelievable atmosphere. To be able to win these sorts of races is something you dream about as a kid, to be able to come here and do it tonight is pretty special.”
After enormous consternation surrounded race tactics during the week the game plan was thrown out when Mach Doro crossed to the lead in the early stages before handing up to Tiger Tara.
Victorian hope San Carlo emerged from the pegs and would punch the breeze for much of the running, but the favoured All Stars pair Spankem and Cruz Bromac wouldn’t emerge to make their challenge until the final lap.
With a blistering third quarter of the final mile Tiger Tara found separation and that was all she wrote, saluting by 14.4m from a fantastic Our Uncle Sam with Spankem and Cruz Bromac filling out the first four.
But the night belonged to one.
“He felt really good,” McCarthy said. “He got a bit of a breather nice and early there and I knew it was going to be on in the last three quarters. He felt good down the back straight and I thought it was time to go and if we were good enough we’d be good enough. It worked out terrific, he’s such a gutsy horse and I’m so lucky to drive him.”