04 March 2022 | HRSA Media
AFTER throwing a sweet right, Rocky cut Drago’s eye with his trainer commenting “you see, he’s not a machine, he’s a man!”
That exact heart pumping scene came to mind as Maharajah captured Sundays Strathalbyn Pacing Cup.
Like Balboa, Maharajah faced what appeared to be an invincible opponent in Jimmy Mack.
Since arriving in South Australia late last year Jimmy Mack has dominated the open class ranks with nine consecutive wins.
Despite drawing the outside of the second row, the son of Washington V C was favoured to continue his streak in the provincial event.
Just as Rocky did, Maharajah delivered a sweet right in the form of a bold front running performance.
With leading reinsman Wayne Hill in the cart, Maharajah led throughout from the pole to score by a neck from his Heather Stevens-trained stablemate, Bettorhavtime.
Im Full Of Excuses was a metre away third in 1:59.1 over 2110 metres.
“At Strathalbyn, it’s a hard track to come wide around them, so I was very confident we could beat Jimmy Mack with the way the draws unfolded,” Stevens said.
“When they are out wide for that last lap it’s really hard to make ground and Wayne drove the track and conditions perfectly.
“Wayne going through the third quarter in 27.5 set up the win by making sure nothing was going to come from back and wide.”
With the country cup circuit moving next to Gawler, Stevens is yet to decide if Maharajah will contest the feature.
“Gawler is a standing start so I don’t know if Maharajah will go in that at this stage,” Stevens said. “He had a standing start in New Zealand a couple of years ago, but hasn’t had one since being here.
“Bettorhavtime will go in it, but I will have to think about Maharajah.
“I may even give him a trial to see how he goes away from the strands.”
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