Victor Harbor Cup success a relief

The harness racing success in Sunday’s Victor Harbor Cup was as much a relief as it was satisfying for Paul Cavallaro.

Cavallaro captured the provincial feature with Wrangler (by Bettors Delight), which broke his maiden status for the respected South Australian horseman.

Making his debut for Cavallaro last October, Wrangler’s previous 14 starts had netted five seconds and three thirds.

“I’m relieved to finally get a win with him,” Cavallaro said. “He’s worked a treat every day since he got here, even trialled in track record time, but couldn’t win a race!

“He’s had no luck in the races here, so to see him get up, and in record time is a relief.

“There was never a doubt about his ability to win here, even string a few together, but he just hasn’t had the luck.”

With Greg Rogers in the cart Wrangler made his own luck by overcoming his 10-metre mark to score by two-and-a-half metres from Motu Premier, which came from a 20-metre back mark.

After galloping at the start, Stratofortress recovered to be third…albeit 22 metres away.

Rating 2:00.3 for the 2660-metre stand, Wrangler sliced seven-tenths of a second from Assassinator’s track record set in January 2020.

“I was a little wary of him going away from the stand, but Greg got him going well,” Cavallaro said.

“After that it was just a matter of getting a decent run, which finally came his way.

“I will see how he pulls up in the next couple of days to decide whether he goes around again next week in the Kapunda Cup or I just go straight into the South Australia Cup in a fortnight.”