Talented four-year-old Pas Guarantee made it two feature wins from as many starts when he led all the way in the Moama Bowling Club Echuca Pacing Cup on Friday night.
Two starts ago, Pas Guarantee outstayed his rivals in the Boort Pacing Cup.
Ellen Tormey sooled Pas Guarantee ($7.50) from the mobile and had little trouble finding the lead, while Chris Alford was happy to bide his time on the $1.95 favourite Idyllic three back in the running line before making a three-wide run at the bell.
Pas Guarantee and Idyllic cleared out from their rivals around the home turn, and it was the former who proved too strong in the home straight to score by two metres.
Tormey admitted her confidence levels rose when she was able to find the front.
“He is a hard horse to get past so I thought he would take some running down if I was able to find the lead and there didn’t appear to be a lot of speed on my inside,” Tormey said.
“But it was a step up in class for him.”
Tormey said she had faith in her charge to sustain the pressure from Idyllic in the home straight.
“The other horse probably has the higher speed, but I was fairly confident Pas Guarantee would out-tough him in the finish,” she said.
“His two trials this time in were super and I told Mark that I thought he had come back a better horse.”
Pas Guarantee now sits at the top of the Trots Country Cups Championship and could make the trek to the Sunraysia in a couple of weeks for the Mildura carnival.
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Earlier in the night, the Courtney Slater-trained Victree Hill broke his country cup maiden status when he produced a powerful finale in the Arch Electrical Group Echuca Trotters Cup.
“I was confident in the horse that he could make up the ground from back in the field and he just loves these little tracks, he corners so well,” winning driver Glen Craven said after the race.
“When Anywhere Hugo came out from underneath me around the turn I thought I had my work cut out, but my horse dug deep in the straight and finished the race off well.”
Recently Victree Hill had been placed in both the Hamilton and Horsham cups, and deserved to break through according to Craven.
“He’s been chasing some nice horses in the country cups and has been a bit unlucky,” he said.
Victree Hill is now second on the Maori's Idol Trotting Championship standings behind Jess Tubbs-trained One Over All.