DREAM FINISH
Lang leads Village of Dreams to victory in cup

2 March 2010

PHIL HOLMES

VILLAGE of Dreams’ come from behind win in the $25,000 Matthews Petroleum Hamilton Pacing Cup was one of many highlights in Hamilton Harness Racing Club’s return to racing on Sunday.

Approximately 3000 revellers braved cold and blustery conditions, to watch Melton driver Gavin Lang guide the four-year-old home in a tight finish.

Starting at the back of the pack, the pre-race favourite ($3.80) made his move at the back straight, before final taking a lead with an outside run in the final 100m.

Mister Anthony led for most of the race, but fell away on the final straight, while the locally trained Master of Disguise finished four lengths back after a promising start.

In second place was Shardons Rocket, while Ohoka Nevada, who also made a late run, finished the race in third place.

Lang was happy with the win, stating it couldn’t have gone any better for him and the horse throughout the standing start race.

“He’d been pretty good in the standing starts with a couple of seconds, so I was confident of a good result. Everything obviously had to fall into place and it did,” he said.

“He’s a sit back horse, that’s where he’s had his success. The speed was really good from the word go, which was another impressive factor in the race with the track being brand new.

“To me there was six or seven good chances in this race, with form on a lot of the horses side, but I wasn’t surprised we ended up being the favourite. In the end someone had to be.”

With 30 years of experience in harness racing, Lang spent a lot of time in Hamilton in his early days as a driver.

Now based in Melton, he was pleased to get back to one of his old haunts, and to win the cup.

“Winning a cup race is always pretty good, but this one at Hamilton was even more satisfying, as it was just great to have racing back in such a strong harness area,” he said.

“We travelled to Hamilton frequently before racing stopped here and it was always a great meeting for the drivers.

“I love to support country clubs like Hamilton, and they are, and always have been, very accommodating. The work the volunteers do is great. It’s like it at all the country clubs, without them, they wouldn’t survive.

“Harness racing owes me nothing, if anything I owe it to come out to these meetings and I know they appreciate us coming up from the city.”

In the opening race, the Tim Neeson Memorial Border Cup, short-priced favourite Lot of Lip ($1.70) held on to win ahead of Devil Fish and Threes a Cloud.

In the other major race of the day, the $15,000 Alexandra House Hamilton Pace, was won by Whiteliner ($3.20), driven and trained by Heywood’s Kevin Brough.