Daring drive key to Swayzee's Hunter Cup win

By Adam Hamilton 

Swayzee trumped his two New Zealand Cup wins when he upstaged Leap To Fame in one of the great Hunter Cups at Melton last night.

As great as those two Addington wins were, beating Leap To Fame – his younger half-brother - is the ultimate.

It was the second time in five clashes Swayzee has beaten Leap To Fame.

And it came after a daringly brilliant Cam Hart drive which saw Swayzee post an unbelievable 1min51.9sec mile rate for 2760m. It smashed Tiger Tara’s track record by 1.3sec.

On the bend, it looked like Leap To Fame, who sat outside Swayzee for the last half of the race, would win, but Swayzee refused to lay down and held on to win by a head.

Kiwi pair Republican Party and Tact McLeod were close-up in third and fourth with the former looking unlucky after charging home from three back in the marker pegs.

The other Kiwi runner, Don't Stop Dreaming, smashed the clock to come wide and storm home late for seventh, beaten just 7.1m.

But the story of the race was the epic stoush between the siblings.

Leap To Fame quickly got away from his awkward inside back row draw, but not until Cam Hart had Swayzee off and running around the field to take the lead from Tact McLeod, who crossed Republican Party at the start.

Hart then played catch me if you can with a middle half in 56.3sec (28.2 and 28.1sec) and when Leap To Fame tried to make ground, Swayzee scorched down the back in 27sec flat.

They still finished off in 27.6sec.

“That was pretty cool to watch, seeing all the good horses hit the line like that, I’m just glad he stuck his head out when he did, but it is just an incredible time,” Swayzee’s trainer Jason Grimson said.

Just as he did to win last November’s NZ Cup for the second time, Grimson only made a very late decision to tackle the Hunter Cup with Swayzee.

The seven-year-old now returns home to chase the last two legs of the NSW Carnival of Cups, which would earn him a $1 million bonus. The next leg is at Albury on Friday week.

Leap To Fame, Republican Party and Don't Stop Dreaming are set to back-up in next Saturday night’s $100,000 Group 2 Cranbourne Cup.

Last night’s other feature, the Great Southern Star, produced a massive upset with Andy Gath’s moderately performed Watts Up Partytime winning his heat and then doing the same in the final at $61.

“Not in our wildest dreams did I think we could win,” Gath said. “Kate thought I was crazy putting him in it, but after the top few big guns I thought it fell away a bit and we might be able to earn some money because he’s a short course specialist.”

Watts Up Partytime emerged from a three pegs run to flash home between runners and  beat leader and $1.28 favourite The Locomotive by a head with Keayang Chucky coming from a mile back for a close third.

Star Kiwi Oscar Bonavena ran a sound third in his heat, but ran way below his best for sixth after a lovely trail in the final.

It was Andy and Kate Gath’s fifth Great Southern Star win in just 13 runnings of the race.

On the same card, star former Kiwi mare Aardies Express returned to her stunning best to win the Ladyship Cup.

Despite doing a power of work, the six-year-old kicked away on the home bend and easily held-off the other class runner, Eye Keep Smiling, to win by 2.7m in a blistering 1min50.5sec mile rate for 1720m.’

Earlier, remarkable former Kiwi veteran Triple Eight won yet another feature as a 10-year-old when he upstaged a good field to win the Pure Steel for driver Greg Sugars and trainer Jess Tubbs.

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