The last race on Invercargill Cup day for the C3 and faster trotters drew a field of ten runners and in the trainers panel on five of them was the surname Williamson.
Three belonged to Phil and two to his son Nathan and on paper the pair looked to hold most of the cards in the standing start feature trot.
As has been the norm lately in his races, Springbank Eden and Brad Williamson made a flyer off 10 metres to lead after 200 metres from Mass Invasion and Moment Of Sun who kept Springbank Eden honest over the first 800 metres in which there was no loitering.
Monty Python from 20 metres had worked into a lovely one by one sit for regular pilot Matthew Williamson while Grey Power and Nathan Williamson were also receiving a nice soft trip three back on the inner.
Brad kept Springbank Eden running in front so there were few moves mid race due to the quick tempo and coming off the back straight the last time he tried to sneak away with Springbank Eden but Matt was straight out of the one by one to challenge his stablemate, grab a narrow lead and then hold off a serious fight back over the last 200 metres.
At the line Monty Python held a 3/4 length advantage over Springbank Eden with five lengths back to a slightly unlucky Grey Power who was just mounting a run at the 400 metres when Moment Of Sun ran in and tightened him, seriously affecting his momentum.
Monty Python trotted the 2600 metres in a smart 3:26.3, a mile rate of 2:02.9 with closing sectionals of 58 and 28.8.
His time was a new track record for the 2700 metres, taking 1.3 seconds off the old record held by The Fiery Ginga.
Matthew had been confident going into the race, labeling Monty Python his best drive of the week on this weeks Harnesslink ringaround of the leading drivers and trainers.
" I thought he would be very hard hard to beat here after his last couple of runs against Springbank Sam."
" He trotted 3:13 at Omakau and was a good second to him again at Addington so this field was no where near as strong and he looked the one."
" I thought if he went as good here, that would be good enough," Matthew said.
Brad was very upbeat about the run of Springbank Eden in defeat.
" He has been had on early for quite a way which took its toll on him late in the race."
" Its taken Monty Python with a perfect run to get over the top of him so I can't be disappointed."
" He just continues to step up and I think there is more improvement in him yet," Brad said.
While a trifecta is never easy to achieve at any time, the Williamson clan certainly have the firepower at the moment in both stables to make it happen.
Harnesslink Media