Bain strikes gold with patient plan

Hard working South Australian harness racing trainer Aaron Bain saw a long-range plan pay off in the best way possible at the Mount Gambier Pacing Gold Cup on Saturday night.

Four-year-old brown mare Alcatraz Lass (Pet Rock-Double Justice (Albert Albert) led from start to finish for in-form reinsman Mark Billinger, scoring at 10/1 in the $12,000 feature event.

"I won consecutive races with her at Mildura, Port Pirie and Globe Derby Park last November and December and then decided to put her in cotton wool for the Mount Gambier Cup," Bain said.

"She tries her heart out when in front, so to get a good barrier draw, I couldn't risk racing her and earning more points which would have put her out in a wider barrier," he said.

"The Cup was for horses with NR of 56 to 65 so in the end we had to draw one or two. We ended up with the one, Mark pinged her to the front and everything fell into place from there."

The Gawler-based trainer said Alcatraz Lass was a completely different horse when forced to come from behind.

"She doesn't go a yard-so we just have to try and find the top whenever possible," he said.

"We had to keep her in peak condition and ready to race because there was a six-week gap between her last win and the cup. But I have to be honest and say we had a bit of a scare on the previous Sunday at the trials when we ran the gate and she galloped into the bend.

"A few urgent changes were made and thankfully she didn't miss a beat at Mount Gambier."

The Gold Cup success was a first for trainer Bain and reinsman Billinger.

Bain ran third in the race last season with Ideal World, the winner being Iam Erik. For Billinger, his closest was fifth in the 2013 edition with Aveross Mac (although he's since won six races on the horse, and they will again team up at Globe Derby this afternoon).

The freelance reinsman was thrilled with the win.

To watch the video replay of Alcatraz Lass click here.

"Aaron had the horse spot-on and she was full of running so I did have a few celebration beers and a bit of a sleep in before driving home the next day," he said.

Aaron Bain

The cup win was the second leg of a winning double for Bain and Billinger at the Mount Gambier meeting, after taking out the $7000 Baxter Hire Pace earlier in the night with sit-sprint pacer Miss Soapbox (Santanna Blue Chip-Blah Blah Blah (Christian Cullen).

Miss Soapbox was driven perfectly by Billinger who sat patiently at the rear of the field.

"The only way she goes any good is by sitting up and waiting as long as you can," Bain said.

"She absolutely sprouts wings when she's driven like that and Mark did a great job – he was last and about five wide on the home corner, but she worked home 100mph," he said.

"She looked disappointing at her previous start in Adelaide, but we had some excuses because she tied up a bit and was also wide from the 1200m mark, and that's just not her cup of tea."

To watch the video replay of Miss Soapbox winning click here.

Bain had his sights set on a unique Cup double with consistent pacer Ideal World tackling the Devonport Cup last night. After reinsman Wayne Hill got his charge away with fine touch in the standing start race, Ideal World seemed to be cruising out in front.

However, with one-and-a-half laps to go, the American Ideal-sired gelding experienced gear failure and went into a gallop before being retired from the race.

Ideal World took out the $12,000 North Eastern Pacing Cup at Scottsdale two starts prior.

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura

P 0498 490 672

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