A pair of wily trots stalwarts tapped into their experience to topple rivals in Saturday’s Neatline Homes Shepparton Gold Cup, when patience paid off for Im Pats Delight.
Trainer Cran Dalgety, aged 50, and reinsman Gavin Lang, 60, scooped up the $60,000 Group 2 feature with a well thought out plan to gift their four-year-old Bettors Delight entire a second win on Australian soil.
“It was a small field but action packed,” said Dalgety of the $60,000 Group 2, when Im Pats Delight started a $2.40 favourite at a click or two under Let It Ride ($3.50), San Carlo ($4.40) and Our Uncle Sam ($5.50).
In Lang's hand the Kiwi stayed out of the early heat and it proved fortuitous.
“After the Bendigo Cup, when San Carlo went forward and Let It Ride gave the front away, we knew the Let It Ride camp was hoping to keep the front and San Carlo was wanting to make it a staying race,” Dalgety said. “So I said to Gav let’s stay out of that.”
True to form, reinswoman Rebecca Bartley and San Carlo challenged Let It Ride for the lead early before accepting the breeze, contributing to a 77.9-second lead time, which matched Im The Boss’s lead time set in last year’s track record.
Decision two came about 700m from home when Lang elected to stay in the one-one behind San Carlo while Our Uncle Sam advanced three-wide.
“Gav could have made a mid-race move when Our Uncle Sam moved forward, but he realised the tempo was on and thought they would come back to him,” Dalgety said.
At the 600m Let It Ride dropped out and by the turn it would be a sprint to the finish, with Im Pats Delight saluting by 1.3m from fast-finishing Our Triple Play, with Our Uncle Sam a fraction further back in third.
“It was pin-point perfection and we were lucky to feature at the right time,” Dalgety said. “Normally when you try and work a run out you get about one in a 1000 right – maybe one in 10,000 – but we got that one right.
“Any victory I can get when I come to Australia is a bit of a thrill. It’s not cheap to come over, but he has more than paid his way.”
Pleasingly, Im Pats Delight pulled up well and Dalgety is flirting with a start in Saturday night’s $110,000 PETstock Ballarat Pacing Cup, nominating him before making a final decision ahead of tomorrow’s 8.30am close of acceptances.
“I had thought that he would definitely miss the Ballarat Cup but he is really bright,” Dalgety said. “We have put a cheeky nomination in, but we are feeling our way and there is no guarantee he will start. I’d run him every day and every week if I could, but I will let him decide.”
Dalgety said the $100,000 4YO Bonanza, on January 26 at Tabcorp Park Melton, was the priority. Victory there would gift Im Pats Delight a start in the $200,000 Chariots Of Fire at Tabcorp Park Menangle on February 16.
A failure to win on night two of the TAB Summer Of Glory, when Im Pats Delight will likely run into fellow Kiwi Spankem, would require qualification via the Hondo Grattan Stakes (February 2) or Paleface Adios Stakes (February 9) at Menangle and potentially put paid to thoughts of contesting what looks set to be a star-studded Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup at Melton on February 2.
“It’s a smorgasboard of options,” Dalgety said. “If you go too far ahead it can all blow up in your face.”