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Eight days after his Great Southern Star triumph, Majestuoso was back to his Group 1-winning ways at Tabcorp Park Melton with victory in the Aldebaran Park The Knight Pistol.
The Andy Gath-trained star racked up his fifth elite level success and took up top spot on the Aurora Australis leaderboard with Saturday night’s performance in the time-honoured $50,000 feature.
Driver Kate Gath made a successful mid-race move from back in the field to find the lead and it proved decisive as the six-year-old held off the surge from New Zealander Temporale (Michelle Wallis and Bernie Hackett/Anthony Butt) to win by just over a metre on the line.
Majestuoso zipped home in a closing quarter of 27.4sec for a mile rate of 1:57.8min over the 2240m trip.
The victory took the Majestic Son gelding past Anton Golino-trained mare Im Ready Jet on the Aurora Australis standings and leaves him two points clear heading into the eighth and final leg of the inaugural series.
“We’ll run him in a couple of weeks and he can have a little spell,” Kate Gath said.
“It’s a $50,000 bonus and money means a lot to (owner) Norm (Jenkin)… hi Norm if you’re watching,” she said with a smile.
“Obviously, the horse comes first and that’s how we roll, but because he came through (the Great Southern Star) so well we thought we would go in this week. It worked out well.
“He is leading the points now so fingers crossed he can hold on, but time will tell.”
The Aurora Australis winds up with the TAB Australian Trotting Grand Prix at Melton on February 26, with connections of the leading horse then picking up a $50,000 bonus.
Sundons Courage (Chris Angove/James Herbertson) put in another strong display in a big race to finish third, beaten just under 10m.
Damien Burns’ comeback kid Youaremy Sunshine produced another of the highlights during Saturday night’s meeting with victory in the Nevele R Stud Pace.
The win was the horse’s second since returning from a long injury-enforced spell and sets the platform for some bigger and better challenges in the future.
The triumph was one of two on the night for driver Chris Alford, who also scored with Dean Braun-trained mare Im Off N Gone in the Villawood Properties Pace.
Kate Gath claimed the other double of the meeting, with victory in the TAB Long May We Play Trot aboard Ymbro Wasted.
The squaregaiter is trained by Gath’s father Peter Thompson and was having his second start following a short New South Wales campaign with David Aiken.
AURORA AUSTRALIS LEADERBOARD
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