Big Cup meeting has Charlton abuzz

Everyone’s keen to get their hands on a country Cup, and the regional Victorian township of Charlton has been giving sponsors a piece of the action in the leadup to the local harness racing club’s feature meeting of the year.

The Bendigo Bank Charlton Pacing Cup has been doing the rounds of local businesses and sponsors, building a vibe of anticipation and excitement in pre-cup week – but it’ll be a crack field of trainers and drivers who will be vying for the silverware this Sunday.

“All the sponsors have had a bit of fun because it’s a pretty impressive cup. It’s been passed around and gone on display all over town, and the sponsors who are donating rugs have displayed them in their shop windows and shopfronts – I know the Cricket Club Hotel has its rug hanging on the wall,” club president Joey Thompson said.

“The sport is obviously a big thing in our town and there’s been plenty of chatter and people are just excited to be back out enjoying a cup day again. There’s a good feeling in the community and we’re obviously very pleased with the fields,” he said.

Some of the State’s top horses will compete in the $30,000 Group 2 North West Ag Services Trotters Cup and then later the $35,000 Group 3 Charlton and District Community Bank Pacing Cup.

Champion Ballarat trainer Emma Stewart has three of her big guns competing in the Pacing Cup-Our Millionaire, Phoenix Prince and Demon Delight.

Our Millionaire (Million Dollar Cam-Rarified Air (Western Ideal) is a winner of 14 of his 33 race outings. Late last year the six-year-old bay horse took out the St Arnaud and Stawell Cups, and then last Monday was victorious in the Horsham edition, defeating his stablemates who are competing at Charlton.

Thompson said the depth in the pacing cup paved the way for a fantastic race.

“In my opinion there’s five or six strong chances, while the square-gaiters cup is a standing start event and we’ve been lucky enough to have The Penny Drops going around who was in Sydney for the InterDominion series last December,” he said.

The first three placegetters from the Horsham Trotters Cup-Havehorsewilltravel, The Penny Drops and Hatchback-will again be opponents at Charlton. Prepared by Andy Gath, Havehorsewilltravel successfully targeted three country cups last year at Cobram, Yarra Valley and Cranbourne.

Former Kiwi in Credit Master, trained by Matt Craven, is sure to have admirers after a recent impressive Menangle victory.

The club had to hit top gear to complete the second stage of their upgrading works at their Charlton Park base.

“We had three and a half weeks to put up the shed. I’d contend it’d have to go close to being a record construction job!” Thompson said.

“It just had to go up so quickly when we could get at it, because in the first week we copped over 60mls of rain in three-quarters of an hour – that slowed things up quite a bit!”

“I won’t say it’s one hundred percent complete, but it’s serviceable.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink