3 minute read
New South Wales pacer Kanena Provlima landed a betting plunge and made amends for its Shepparton Cup defeat last week when it led all the way in the $100,000 Decoglaze Ballarat Pacing Cup.
Backed in from $19 into $4, Kanena Provlima found the early lead and with no mid race pressure evident driver David Moran was allowed to slow the tempo in a pedestrian like 64.5 first half of the last mile.
Kate Gath opted to ease out of the early speed on the $3.30 favorite Catch A Wave from a wide front row draw and settled towards the rear of the field.
Mach Dan made an early move to loop the field and sit parked outside Kanena Provlima with Catch A Wave making its move three wide without cover with 800 metres to travel.
Catch A Wave appeared to be travelling well on the home turn however Kanena Provlima appreciated having all the favors in the lead reeling off a 26 second last 400 metres to score comfortably from Beyond Delight and Cya Art.
The winner returned a mile rate of 1:59.8 which is five seconds outside the track record.
Kanena Provlima is trained by KerryAnn Morris who drove the stable mate Pete Said So which finished sixth.
"Normally Rob (Morris) and Josh (Gallagher) do the driving and I'm on the sidelines but they stayed at home, so I was behind Pete Said So who still ran a really good race," Morris said.
"We've been thrilled with Kanena Provlima – his run last week at Shepparton was really good and these two horses have done a fair bit of travelling but they seem to keep popping up and getting better," he said.
Kanena Provlima is owned by Ben Settree from the Bathurst based Brooklyn Lodge Standardbreds.
"Ben contacted us to see whether we wanted to take the horse at Menangle and we're glad he did because he's been a horse who has just got better with racing and he obviously likes our style of training," she said.
Morris said both Kanena Provlima and Pete Said So will be nominated for the Group 1 Hunter Cup at Melton in a fortnight.
Earlier in the night champion trotter Just Believe stamped his seemingly invincible status in this part of the world when he accounted for a crack line up in the Aldebaran Park The Knight Pistol at Ballarat.
Greg Sugars was content to sit parked on Just Believe ($1.28 fav) on the outside of the leader Mufasa Metro with the French stallion Callmethebreeze camped on the favorite's back in the one out one back trail.
Just Believe lengthened stride around the home turn before forging clear on straightening, and with the crowd roaring, the son of Orlando Vinci racked up his sixth consecutive win since returning from contesting the Elitlopp in Sweden.
Both the runner up Callmethebreeze and third placed Keayang Ignite were excellent efforts behind the benchmark of Australasian trotting.
Sugars said he was wary of the calibre of those horses in pursuit.
"The French horse was the query and he was on our back and John (Justice) drove to beat us, so that was the only worry in the back of my mind that the French horse was getting such a good trip and there were horses like Arcee Phoenix being a swooper late," he said.
"But Just Believe is such a good racehorse that he settles and it doesn't matter what the speed is as when you ask him to go he really finds that acceleration."
Sugars admitted the lack of recent racing was a slight concern given the quality of his rivals.
"We were pretty happy with him coming into the race but not having a run since the Inter Dominion we were slightly vulnerable, but I could tell with how well he was travelling that he was on song," he said.
