Group 1 placegetter Son Of Mac showed his class when he outpointed his rivals in the Australian Pacing Gold Pace on Saturday night.
The Kyle Marshall-trained and driven six-year-old led the outside horses before surging to the front with 600 metres to travel and proceeded to open up a sizeable lead around the home turn.
Son Of Mac ($11) held on to score by four metres on the line from the $3.20 favourite Thestatesman in a mile rate of 1:55.6.
The son of American Ideal finished on the heels of the placegetters in last week’s Stampede.
“We’ve always known he’s got it there and last start was in a 1200-metre race with some pretty handy horses and he finished on the back of them and felt pretty good and it probably sharpened him up for tonight,” Marshall said.
The former New Zealand pacer was off the scene for 16 months a couple of years ago.
“He’s had his issues and to get him back winning has been a team effort. As a two- and three-year-old he was a really nice horse, he ran second in the Great Northern Derby back home.
He had the hard racing as a young horse and he just needed time. He is a big horse and he was feeling his joints, so we gelded him and gave him plenty of time,” he said.
Matt Craven is obviously a believer that the shortest way home is the best way home.
Craven adopted those tactics successfully in consecutive races aboard stablemates Love Ya Brother and All Blazing Guns.
Love Ya Brother ($12) settled three back along the pegs and persevered with a pathway along the sprint lane to score by four metres from the leader Dhoni Trouble.
It was the lightly raced eight-year-old’s first win since scoring at Hamilton three years ago.
“I decided to stick to the pegs and see how it panned out and probably a bit of ability got him over the line because he was certainly getting tired late and when they win like that and it surprises you, it’s very pleasing,” Craven said.
“He’s not easy to train at the moment because you can’t back up his work. I had to go and get a new girth before the race because I couldn’t get the saddle done up, so it tells you how much improvement is in him if we can keep him sound,” he said.
Half an hour later, Craven angled down to the pegs in the back straight on one of the rank outsiders, All Blazing Guns ($101), in the Nevele R Stud Pace.
Again, Craven made full use of the sprint lane as All Blazing Guns charged through to down the $1.70 favourite Star To Fall in a mile rate of 1:56.7.
“If it panned out like this in every race it would be ideal,” he said.
“In both races I’ve been able to take advantage of going back to the inside, it was probably the key to both horses’ chances.
It was a bit unexpected, although I was happy with how they felt within themselves, but I still felt that they needed the runs. Sometimes things just fall into place and that was ideal,” he said.
