With Echuca Racing Club’s first $100 000 cup, the classy field was gutted by Sunday with four of the 11 starters scratched.
And they were some of the heavy hitters of the lineup — Sircconi has a habit of winning big races and has banked $418 000 for its owners, while Kazio has collected $311 000 from its five wins.
Electric Charlie and Fox Hall were the others with a line through their names.
It left just seven horses in the hunt for the crown and one of them — Easy Beast — looked set to make a little bit of Echuca racing history with its head in front with 100 m to go.
The five-year-old gelding had won its first race at Echuca in October 2017. On a track rated a good four. Sunday's cup was also run on a track with the same rating.
But with just metres to go Hanger came flying down the centre of the track and snatched victory by a length and a bit, with the heavily-backed favourite Ashlor third — Hanger was 12/1 while Ashlor was backed into 5/2.
Ironically, it was the track upgrade that almost had Hanger back in the float and gone.
The five-year-old Kiwi gelding has only been in Australia since January, but had 20 starts in New Zealand before being sent to Beer’s Albury stables.
Speaking after the race a clearly emotional Beer thanked the Waikato and Cambridge studs in NZ for “entrusting” him with “such a high calibre horse”.
They have showed great faith and I am just rapt we can repay them,” Beer said.
“The whole team has done a terrific job because he’s not a very easy horse to train.
“He’s got his quirks, and he jars up a lot and he felt that Flemington run (February 15 for his debut Australian run) and he’s pretty much been in the pool for three weeks but gee, this is bloody terrific.”
Beer said as they came through the gate to the track he received a text saying the track had just been upgraded to a good four.
He said he turned to one of the team travelling with him and said “we should scratch this horse”.
And meant it.
“I just want to look after him and it’s so hard to get good quality horses and we already treat him like a Group horse,” he said.
“But he is a horse where everything has to be done and checked twice and then to get a run like that from Teo (Nugent), who has delivered 10 out of 10 rides for me — but today must have been a 12.”
Nugent agreed with Beer’s assessment of his horse, saying if it had found its form while still in NZ he would be “every part of this” sort of success.
Then said he would love to see Hanger over the classic mile because “he just ate that ground up today”.
“He is a horse that tends to hit a flat spot every time he runs and he has always loved a wet track as well and when the Echuca track was drying out during the day that was my only concern, but now I just can’t wait to see him set for the 1600 m — there’s a lot of potential there.”
Nugent, who made it a double after winning the first on the card, said he had ridden at Edenhope on Saturday and loved coming to country cup meetings — and winning.
“To repay Beer and his family and the small team they have with a $100 000 race is great.”
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