Gus no fuss

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. Yeah, wow what a feeling,” winning driver Pete McMullen said after his drive on Gus (Majestic Son) won the $400,000 Group One Renwick Farms Dominion at Addington today.

After a slow start, Gus settled second last as a number of runners took their turn at leading.

“We like to get him into his rhythm early and let him do his work late so it worked out perfectly. I knew there was going to be speed early.”

With 1000 metres to run McMullen decided to get handier.

 “The pace went out of the race midway and that’s when we made our move.”

In a brilliant turn of foot Gus hit the lead at the 600 metre mark and kept up a good tempo to go on and win by two and a quarter lengths from Mr Love with half a neck back to Oscar Bonavena who finished the race out nicely for third.

“I was watching it with Carter (Dalgety) and was getting a bit nervous when Pete took off. I turned around and said, you’ll have to tell me what he does,” trainer Chantal Turpin said.

After preforming well at the recently held Interdominions in Australia where Gus finished fourth in the final, Turpin and McMullen hatched a plan to race in the Dominion.

“There was nothing left for him in Australia. This was to be his next target and it’s all paid off.”

The winning time was 4-04.1.

“He hasn’t been easy and he’s been hard to work out, but I think we’ve finally got him now. He relies heavily on his routine. We bring him here, gear him up and take him out to warm up. Then we completely ungear him and let him settle down again before we go back out.”

It’s only the third time Australian trained horses have won the Dominion. Just Believe won last year’s edition and Scotch Notch won back in 1983.

Gus was bred by Southland trainer Nathan Williamson who started him twice, winning once before he sold him.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink