Prominent horseman Michael Norman continued his recent success in feature races, with the win of Wotchawaitingfor in the final of the UBET Winter Wunderland Cup last Saturday at Globe Derby Park.
This success follows on from the win of youngster Shardonant in the 2018 SA BOTRA Sales Graduate classic earlier in June.
Wotchawaitingfor was patiently driven by Norman after being taken off the gate at dispatch and taking a trail towards the rear of the field.
Norman was aided by the fast tempo set in the early stages of the event when race favourite Live for Peace driven by trainer Ryan Hryhorec was sent forward to obtain the position outside of the leader Marty Major.
Unfortunately for Hryhorec and favourite punters, Smooth Delight NZ began to over race outside the leader and Live For Peace was forced to race three wide for the entire journey.
With the first half of the last mile being covered in a blistering 58.6 seconds, the leaders began to tire and it was left to the backmarkers to fight out the race.
Ace To Play, a heat winner from last week, driven by Jake Webster was first to swoop on the leaders shortly after entering the front straight but was unable to hold off the late challenge of Wotchawaitingfor, who prevailed by 1.2metres.
Arm A Princess the other heat winner from last week finished along the sprint lane a further 2 metres away in third place.
The win was the fourth in fourteen starts for Wotchawaitingfor since being transferred by Victorian owner and trainer Marnie Bibby into the care of Michael Norman in February of this year.
Norman is an accomplished horseman and aside from training his small racing team is well known as a breaker and preparer of young horses. This talent no doubt has attributed to his recent training successes, with juvenile Shardonant and another recent winner for the stable Count Bacardi, whose manners let him down early in his career, but under the guidance of Norman has improved greatly of late.
Norman is enjoying a successful period with his small racing team and more winners in the near future would not surprise.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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