A big day for local trainer
The 2020 Mount Gambier Cup winner Sunset Milo, now trained by David Peckham for Tim Aloisi and Matt Lehman, led all the way last Sunday to win the Exchange Printers Mount Gambier Cup Consolation (512 m) in 29.85 seconds.
For Peckham, this was his second consecutive consolation win after Silent Jacko had been successful last year. However, still the cup eludes him.
Sunset Milo, a son of My Bro Fabio x Jewel Action, hung on to narrowly defeat the Steve Bartholomew trained Galactic Horizon, a litter sister to Galactic Athena who won the 2019 Mount Gambier Cup.
This was the second of two feature race successes for the day for the Allendale East trainer after Maximum Refusal scored a big win in the Allen Cram-sponsored The Tankman 600.
Raced in the same interests as Sunset Milo, Maximum Refusal made his Tara Raceway debut the week prior when running a handy fourth behind Renewed in a heat of the Mount Gambier Cup.
A winner over 545 metres (Ballarat), 600 metres (Angle Park) and 618 metres (Richmond), the brindle dog settled in a handy spot early from box one before taking up the running down the back straight.
From then on it was a matter of how far as Maximum Refusal powered away to a 7½ lengths win over Oakvale Impact with the heavily supported reserve runner Freda Rocks a further length back in third spot.
The winner’s time was interesting. He ran 34.83 seconds which was only a half-length outside the 34.79 seconds track record established by Pirate’s Curse – also trained by Peckham for Aloisi and Lehman.
In fact, Maximum Refusal’s time was the fastest recorded over the middle-distance journey at Tara Raceway since Pirate’s Curse ran the record on April 21, 2019.
Cup day started well for Peckham after first-starter Bourne Brett led all the way to defeat another first-starter in Galactic Dreamer in the Bourne Kennels Stake (305 m).
Well boxed in the eight, Bourne Brett used plenty of the track when scoring by three lengths in 17.84 seconds. The win was the first for the Paddy Whacker x Raz’s Girl litter, the dam having won 12 races over 400 metres at Tara Raceway.
And the day also ended well when Aston Model finished too strongly for Aston Stella in the Metal Worx Stake (400 m), the daughter of Aston Dee Bee and Aston Regas scoring by 1¾ lengths in 23.37 seconds.