Loving Home wins 2017 Port Macquarie Cup for team Waller
CHRIS Waller’s winning weekend kicked off early on Friday at Port Macquarie when Loving Home saluted in the $150,000 Port Macquarie Cup (2000m).
Trained at Waller’s satellite stable on the Gold Coast, the seven-year-old made the trek south worthwhile, settling just behind the leading division before barging his way into the clear at the top of the straight under the guidance of Tye Angland.
Once he got clear galloping room the bay gelding let down with a powerful finish, defeating Social Element by 0.28 lengths with Brazen rounding out the trifecta back in third.
Stable representative Liam Prior, who grew up in Port Macquarie, was rapt with the victory.
“Fittingly the horse is named Loving Home – it is nice to win my home town cup,” Prior said.
“It’s great because Tye [Angland] is a good friend of mine and he didn’t ride Antoni Giuseppe in the Group 1 Metropolitan the other day so it was a nice little consolation to come up and ride [the winner of] the Port Macquarie Cup.”
Loving Home took his record to seven wins and 16 placings from 39 starts, with his prize money earnings now towering above $360,000.
Prior praised the work of the newly opened Gold Coast team for having Loving Home – a son of Shamardal and Fallen In Love – cherry ripe for the Cup.
“He is bought out of the UK as a tried horse and he has been up and down the east coast,” Prior explained.
“He finds himself here today and to win a $150,000 race he has done a fantastic job and full credit to our team on the Gold Coast – the stables were recently opened up there and they have been starting to find their mark the last few weeks.
“He travelled down last night and settled in beautifully at John Sprague’s stable – everyone has taken care of us and its been great to get the win.”
Waller looks destined to add at least an extra $300,000 to his earnings this weekend, with champion mare Winx looking for 21-straight victories in Saturday’s Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington.
The superstar of Australian turf is at $1.18 with Sportsbet as she aims to go one step closer to winning her third Cox Plate later this month.
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