By Brad Kingsbury
LOVE was in the air at Cranbourne racetrack on Sunday with a big weekend crowd attending the meeting that featured the running of the inaugural I Love Frankston Cup.
The result of the $50,000 main event over 1600 metres created even more happiness for punters with race favourite Mangonui saluting for Sale-based trainer Ian Hutchins, thanks to a superb ride from Caulfield Cup winning jockey Vlad Duric.
Duric contacted Hutchins to seek the ride on the talented middle-distance galloper and then wasted to reach the horse’s weight of 53 kilograms prior to the ride.
He made no mistakes in running and proved his edge in class by riding the lightly raced five-year-old quietly, just forward of midfield, and then executing a perfectly timed run to overpower Captious and the fast-finishing Arrowsweep and win by almost a length.
The victory earned Mangonui automatic entry into the $100,000 Peet Limited Pakenham Cup on 2 March and Hutchins was thrilled with the gelding’s effort, made even more enjoyable given it was part-owned by long-time friends of the trainer.
“They were neighbours of mine when I lived and trained at Mordialloc years ago and when they came to me and said they had a little horse they wanted to give to me, I was happy to train it,” he said.
“He’s got a good turn of foot and Vlad rode a perfect race to win.”
Frankston mayor Cr Alistair Wardle joined former star jockey Simon Marshall, who grew up in the bayside suburb, in presenting connections with the trophy, with both praising patrons for making the day a huge success.
Jockey Mark Zahra had a good share of that success earlier in the afternoon, completing a winning treble, while leading metropolitan trainer David Hayes scored a double on the program.
Locally based trainers Michael Kent and Doug Harrison took out the last two races with emergency runners Clandon and Spectrum Blitz respectively, while veteran Cranbourne jockey Peter Mertens also had reason to smile after piloting race-seven winner Foreign Scandal to the line in first place.
The next meeting at Cranbourne will be the annual City of Casey Tricodes raceday featuring the three codes that compete at the complex with a race every 15 minutes on Sunday, 16 March.
