Seven-year-old Holmes Hanover gelding Karlsruhe was the big winner at Tabcorp Park on Friday night when they claimed an upset win in the $20, 000 SEW Eurodrive Markonvina Free For All (2240m).
The David Aiken-trained Karlsruhe ($7.20) raced out wide to snare victory from the Lance Justice-trained and driven favourite Smoken Up ($1.40) by racings closest margin, a short half-head, with Pacific Charm ($16.90) who used the sprint lane just over four metres back in third.
It was a frustrating result for recent millionaire Smoken Up who has finished in the placings without a win in his last eight from nine races.
Make Waves took advantage of their number one barrier to lead early on, still sitting at the front on the bell. Following closely was the short priced favourite Smoken Up with Pacific Charm on the pegs running third with just under a lap to go.
With 800m left to travel Karlsruhe was sitting second last, driven patiently by David Moran.
Make Waves held a four metre lead to Smoken Up with 600m to go. Heading into the straight Smoken Up accelerated closing the gap between him and the leader, while Pacific Charm went into the express lane and Karlsruhe was running four deep.
On the final straight Karlsruhe had a brilliant run out wide. Smoken Up hit the lead but Karlsruhe put in a gallant chase and came head-to-head with the favourite finishing in nearly a dead heat. There was nothing in it, Karlsruhe just managing victory by a short half head while pacemaker Make Waves faded to finish seventh.
A fast paced race saw Karlsruhe run his career best winning mile rate of 1:54.2, which was 1.5s faster than the previous record shared by Tintin In America and Just Callme Cullen.
Karlsruhe has now won 18 of their 103 race starts for over $234, 000 in prizemoney.
Another major pacing event that took place on Friday night was the $20, 500 XXXX Gold Autumn Championship at Gloucester Park where the talented Tony Svilicich-trained Has The Answers ($1.20 fav) claimed an emphatic 8.4m victory ahead of Gee Whiz Fizz ($10.9) with the longest priced contender Dark Sky ($59.40) in third.
2010 SEW Eurodrive Markonvina Free For All Results:
Place |
Horse |
Prizemoney |
Row & Br. |
Trainer |
Driver |
Margin (m) |
| 1 |
KARLSRUHE |
$13,500 | Fr3 | D Aiken | D N Moran | - |
| 2 |
SMOKEN UP (NZ) |
$3,000 | Fr7 | L J Justice | L J Justice | SHFHD |
| 3 |
PACIFIC CHARM |
$2,000 | Fr2 | L Miles | L Miles | 4.30 |
| 4 |
TI VOGLIOBENE |
$1,000 | Fr5 | G R Norman | J N Quinlan | 9.90 |
| 5 |
JACKSON GRANT |
$500 | Fr4 | G F Douglas | G F Douglas | 10.70 |
| 6 |
NOTASWETHORT (NZ) |
- | Fr6 | G F Douglas | D K Douglas | 12.50 |
| 7 |
MAKE WAVES |
- | Fr1 | R F Cook | D A Murphy | 14.50 |
| 8 |
JACCKA SANDY (NZ) |
- | Sr1 | G A Lang | G Lang | 18.20 |