The heavily backed favourite Sons Of John kept the punters happy with a comfortable win in the Group 3 $150,000 Panthers Hawkesbury Gold Cup (1600m) at Hawkesbury on Sunday.
Tales Of Grimma above, ran second to Sons Of John in the Hawkesbury Gold Cup at Hawkesbury. Photo by Steve Hart.
Sons Of John’s win was also a triumph for local trainer Jason Attard who recorded his biggest win to date on his home track at Hawkesbury.
“I can’t explain how I’m feeling,” Attard said after the race.
“This is just amazing. Wow, it’s great to win the Hawkesbury Cup on our home track.”
Even though Sons Of John was jumping up to Group 3 from a restricted class win at Randwick on May 20, the locals rallied to forced his price in from $7 to start the $4.60 favourite.
Winning rider Jeff Penza gave Sons Of John the run of the race, box sitting behind the well fancied Prince Cheri ($7) and the Gai Waterhouse trained Bonfire ($8).
When Prince Cheri shifted off the fence at the top of straight, Penza pushed Sons Of John along the fence to reach the lead at the 250m and raced away to score a two and half lengths win over the Chris Waller pair Tales Of Grimm ($5) and Rugged Cross ($7.50).
Attard was confident that the four year old was ready to step up in grade and the consistent galloper didn’t let his trainer down.
“We came here skipping a few grades but the horse has been going so well it felt like the right thing to do,” Attard said.
The Hawkesbury Gold Cup was originally scheduled to be run at the Hawkesbury standalone meeting on May 2 but after being washed out was transferred to last Sunday.
Sons Of John’s Hawkesbury Gold Cup win took his winning record to six from fifteen starts as well as four placings and boosted his winning prizemoney to over $204,000.
