And now there are two!
Thanks to his impressive victory in last night’s Shepparton Gold Cup, Kingman has become the second pacer eligible for Harness Racing Victoria’s mouth-watering $1million bonus.
In what can only be described as a phenomenal promotion, HRV will pay the sum to any pacer which captures four of the six specified Cups.
One of those wins has to be in the Hunter Cup in Melton on February 14.
Evergreen veteran Bulletproof Boy became the first to become eligible after securing last weekend’s Bendigo Cup.
Kingman and Bulletproof Boy are expected to aim for a second win in Saturday night’s Ballarat Cup.
Amazingly, there is still room for a third pacer to join the duo by winning Ballarat’s flagship event.
Such a scenario would be a dream result leading into the final three legs – Cranbourne, Kilmore and Melton.
But for now, the spotlight belongs on Kingman.
Trained and driven by Luke McCarthy, the son of Always B Miki led throughout from the pole to score by two-and-a-half metres from Leap To Fame, which trailed the pacemaker.
After working hard in the ‘death seat’, Our Luciano was 43 metres away third.
Slashing an incredible 1.9 seconds from the track record, Kingman rated 1:53.7 over 2690 metres to take his record to 16 wins and 11 placings from 37 starts for earnings of $985,219.
“Full credit to HRV and all the clubs for putting the bonus on to lure horses like Kingman and Leap To Fame here,” McCarthy said.
“He’ll be staying here for the whole summer carnival now, right through to the Hunter Cup.”
Just like Kingman, Im Bobby is the second squaregaiter to earn a ‘token’ thanks to his Trotters’ Cup triumph.
There is a $500,000 bonus on offer to any trotter which wins four legs…one must be the Great Southern Star in Melton on February 14.
Freakish mare Keayang Zahara became the initial eligible trotter via her Aldebaran Park Maori Mile success last week.
Driven by premier reinsman James Herbertson, Im Bobby also led throughout to account for Arcee Phoenix and Gotfeelingsyouknow.
Trained by Eddie Tappe, the son of Majestic Son rated 1:59.6 over 2690 metres, slicing seven-tenths of a second from Save A Sixpence’s track record set in January 2012.
PHOTOGRAPHY: SOPHIE JEFFERIES
