Lets Elope takes out the Gunbower Pacing Cup for Anthony Butt and Brent Lilley.
Horses always tend to go better when their confidence is up, which of course makes perfect sense.
And Brent Lilley has his Bolinda team firing on all cylinders right now.
Lilley took home all the silverware from Gunbower on Sunday, snatching the Cohuna Car Sales Bill Poxon Memorial Gunbower Trotters Cup with in-form Kvintet Avenger and the Gunbower Family Hotel Gunbower Pacing Cup with talented ex-Kiwi Lets Elope.
Speaking of talented ex-Kiwis, Lilley is based in Australia after moving across the ditch – and the reinsman who drove both horses yesterday, Anthony Butt, can now also lay claim to the title because the news came through last night he would be basing himself full-time in Victoria.
“He’s going to work mornings for me and he’ll do most of my stable driving,” Lilley said.
“Rodney Petroff has been very good though and has done a great job for me, so we’ll still be looking after Rodney as well and Anthony is aware of that.”
Butt will live in Melton and his move is yet another windfall for Victorian harness racing, which has picked up trainers Nicole Molander full-time and James Rattray for the summer in the last week.
Kvintet Avenger is a seven-year-old entire by Love You out of Nobes Hanover.
The trotter has won six of his eight starts since his Australian racing debut in September.
At Tabcorp Park Melton on November 14 he sprinted home with a 27.5 final quarter, comfortably defeating Action Kosmos and Quite A Moment.
Yesterday he broke the track record at Gunbower with a 2:02.9 run, out-staying Paris Pepperell over the 2630m trip by 4.4m.
When Paris Pepperell went for home and drew three-quarters of a length clear of Kvintet Avenger approaching the bend some punters might have thought a minor upset was on the cards.
But not Butt.
The well-tried $2.60 equal favourite Kvintet Avenger kicked back strongly and proved too tough in the straight for a comfortable win.
“Anthony said he actually won quite easily and he was never worried in the run,” Lilley said.
Kvintet Avenger will eventually tackle the might of Keystone Del, My High Expectations et al, but Lilley will avoid the topliners for as long as he can.
“I’d rather dodge the top ones as best I can for the moment but of course he’ll eventually have to take them on,” he said.
Lilley said the Australian Trotting Championships over the Sumer of Glory carnival would be a realistic target on the way to hopefully securing a berth in the Great Southern Star next March.
Lets Elope also broke the track record yesterday in his pacing cup success.
Despite a 20m handicap Lets Elope rated 1:57.9 to score an easy victory in the 2630m feature over in-form Road To Rock.
“He had a great run. Anthony drove him a treat,” Lilley said.
“We’re really looking forward to the summer with this horse.
“We’ll probably now go to some metro races. He’s an M1. He wasn’t far from them in New Zealand so it’d be no surprise to me for him to be a Hunter Cup horse," Lilley added.
