Prince Rashad 50th Invercargill Cup winner

When harness racing gelding Prince Rashad (Rashad) won the 50th running of the Invercargill Cup in 1997, he became the third pacer to win the race twice, joining Laser Lad and Blossom Lady.

The eight year old chestnut was owned by his trainer Austin Stack, his wife Miriam and her father Lex Thomas.
After starting off the 35 metre mark, driver Clark Barron moved forward at the 1300 metre mark to challenge leader Vanderel for the final lap. Prince Rashad got to the front 200 metres from the winning line to best Lady Emma by a neck with Decision Time a half a neck back in third.

The winning time for the 3200 metre journey was 4-04.2 with Prince Rashad running the journey post to post in 4-00.9, the last mile was cut out in 1-59.9.

“When he heads a horse, he really digs deep. It was a huge effort of 35 metres. He’s a great horse,” Barron told Southland Times reporter Jamie Searle.

The $25,000 Southland Times Invercargill Cup that year was for M5 and faster pacers. The winning stake was $16,250.

Other winners on the day were: Titan Late (Marcus Hamilton), Dark Game (Gil Shirley), Knight Vance (Tony Herlihy), Bo Scots Medley (Clark Barron), Spicy Atom (Allan Beck), Brilliant Franco (Colin DeFilippi), Atitagain (Simon Pavlovich), Bundaberg Boy (Ali Malcolmson) and Jacinta Bret (Allan Beck).

The tote on the day for ten races handled $151,574 on-course and $1,007,708 off course.

Prince Rashad’s lifetime record was 108-21-16-6 and $202,378. His major wins were in the Canterbury Classic, Ashburton Cup and Invercargill Cup (2).

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink