Mass scenes of celebration broke out across the Tabcorp Park Melton lawn as Mister Hunter produced a stunning final sprint to capture a huge prize for his big band of owners.
On a night when six Group 1s were run and won the APG Vic Gold Bullion final for two-year-old colts and geldings was one to remember for reinsman Jack Laugher, trainer Vince Dicocco and a 17-member strong ownership group, with their Huntsville colt rattling home to improve from last to first.
“It does make it feel that bit … better doing it for a big group of owners,” Laugher told TrotsVision.
“They all probably haven’t had a great deal of horses in their time, but there’s just a bunch of them that own little bits and pieces of him. They were all here tonight and cheering him on – they all got a great thrill out of it and so have I and it’s great for the sport really.”
The win was Laugher’s first Group 1 triumph, outstanding reward for the reinsman who’s been lauded since crossing from Tasmania to build his career.
“It’s always something that you would like to achieve but when I first moved over that probably wasn’t part of the plan,” Laugher said.
“I’m probably just lucky enough to be driving a few nicer horses now. I was lucky to pick up this one for Vince and all the guys that own him at Ballarat last week.
“He put the writing on the wall and he was just too good, it didn’t really matter who drove him tonight. I was lucky enough to get the steer, I am very grateful for that.”
Mister Hunter was a winner of two of his four starts leading in and Laugher showed a very patient hand tonight, happy to wait until approaching the final turn before setting out after the front runners.
The confidence was quickly rewarded, with Mister Hunter entering the turn last and departing it level with the leaders.
From there he quickly scooted clear in the final 200 for a 6.9-metre win from Will He Reign, with Staroftheshow almost 15 metres in arears in third. Harness Racing Victoria’s sectionals clocked the winner in a 27.74-second final quarter, almost a second quicker than any of his rivals.
“Sitting on a helmet he doesn’t feel you’ve got a lot there, but when you pull him out he’s happy to run for you,” Laugher said. “I think going forward he’s going to be a lethal horse with a sit.”
Michael Howard
