Toughness rewarded

General Dodge showed us another string to his bow with a brilliant performance in the Group 3 United Petroleum Yarra Valley Pacing Cup on Thursday.

Mick Chircop’s star has long been lauded for his brilliant point-to-point speed, but proved he could also do it a little tough by sitting parked for the last lap of Thursday’s staying event and then thrashing a quality field with ease.

Driver Jason Lee eased back to last from his barrier six draw, but was forced to lead up the one-wide line approaching the bell. And that’s where he stayed until the straight when General Dodge accelerated clear of his rivals to win by 9m.

He charged away from early front-runner Major Roll (Kasey Kent/David Moran) who boxed on for second, with Torrid Saint (Julie Douglas/Jack Laugher) sprinting well from the leader’s back for third.

The field clocked a blistering 26.4 final quarter at the end of the 2650m trip to record a mile rate of 1:58.7.

“He was good again,” Lee said.

“He’s had a few runs back now and probably people were expecting him to be the complete package at the top level when he hadn’t done a lot at it.

“So, he was really good and all credit to Mick and all his team. They put all the hard work into him, and obviously he’s got the ability, but you’ve still got to get him here.”

Lee conceded driving the horse hard off the gate at his first start for the preparation in the VHRC Caduceus Classic was probably the wrong thing to do, but was pleased to see the eight-year-old again show his versatility in a big race.

“I probably regret now buzzing the gate. It probably didn’t help him for his next couple of runs. And looking back at it, I wish I had have just crept forward or put him away, but anyway that’s in the past now,” he said.

General Dodge’s Yarra Valley Cup annihilation follows his Geelong Pacing Cup win from October 23 and takes the injury and illness-plagued son of Courage Under Fire’s record to 16 victories from just 24 career starts.

WATCH GENERAL DODGE’S WIN AND HEAR JASON LEE’S INTERVIEW BELOW:

By Tim O’Connor for HRV