The crowd reached fever pitch as hometown hero Lochinvar Art looked set for a fairytale return to the track, but it was Spirit Of St Louis who spoiled the Arty party with a brilliant win in the Shepparton Gold Cup.

The pint-sized Belinda McCarthy-trained gelding backed up his Bendigo feature triumph from seven days earlier thanks to another perfect drive from gun young reinsman Jack Callaghan, who had the back of the local champ for the last lap and then pounced on him in the straight.

In the end, Spirit Of St Louis won by 3.5m over Lochinvar Art, who ran a brave race first-up from a long injury-enforced break.

With the assistance of the speed set by Mach Da Vinci out in front, Spirit Of St Louis clocked a new Shepparton 2690m track record mile rate of 1:55.6min, which was half a second quicker than the original mark held by Lochinvar Art and Im The Boss.

“He’s only a wee little fella, but his heart’s the size of himself so it’s a massive thrill to be driving him,” Callaghan said.

“It all worked out perfectly. I was able to whip around fairly soft down the back straight and Mach Da Vinci really wanted to fire up a bit then.

“Obviously Arty was going to be put into the race at some point. It worked out perfect that I was able to get a bit of cover down that back straight and all he had to do was sprint up the straight.”

The New South Wales-based Callaghan has enjoyed a whirlwind start to his career in the sulky and now has 290 winners since commencing driving in the 2017-18 season.

“Obviously I’m rapt with how my career is going at the moment. A massive part of that is because of Luke and Belinda McCarthy, who I now work for. And they’ve just given me some really good opportunities after the first couple of years with Dad at Newcastle,” the 20-year-old said.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start.”

Spirit Of St Louis, a five-year-old by Sweet Lou, has been in the care of Peter Walsh locally at Shepparton during his Victorian raid, which included Bendigo Cup success last Saturday and could now entail a crack at the Group 1 Ballarat Cup next weekend.

Saturday night’s victory was the horse’s 15th from 35 career starts, with his earnings now up near $240,000.

While Lochinvar Art was beaten, he lost few admirers after a gallant display in his first race since winning last February’s A.G. Hunter Cup.

Trainer-driver David Moran settled back from his barrier seven draw and brought him up to the death seat at the bell, and after shooting for home and getting well clear in the straight, he was only grabbed late by the eventual race winner.

Kate Gath drove a winning quartet at Shepparton, which included victory in the Group 3 Derby Royale Trotters Free For All with star squaregaiter Majestuoso.

The six-year-old got tired late, but held on to beat the fast-finishing Sundons Courage by over a metre in his first run back since suffering atrial fibrulation back in November.

The result also helped bring up a treble for trainer Andy Gath, who also won with Sanday and Scallywag Sam.

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