Caption: Ron and Joan Schadow, owners of Gawler Cup winner Victa Grosso (Photo: Kurt Donsberg)
VICTA Grosso’s victory in the $36,000 Gawler Gold Cup was the highlight of a great week of racing for the region which featured the inaugural Carnival of Cups across the three racing codes.
Nixon’s Function Centre was packed for the Gold Cup meeting and there was a good crowd on course for the massive night of racing.
The highlight of the night was the Gawler Gold Cup Final which was race eight on the program. The Troy Murray-trained Came And Went jumped favourite from box one. Troy was looking to take out back-to-back Cups after winning last year with Major Major and also chasing his seventh win in the feature. Bosko Stamenkovic also had a strong presence in the race with his two kennel stars Rosie Red and Fire Strike both making the final.
Tony and Lisa Rasmussen had three runners in the final and all three of them were seen as big winning chances.
The Rasmussen-trained Victa Hadyn was the fastest heat winner and was shooting for a $9000 bonus after winning the Gawler Produce Final earlier in the year. Instead, it was the littermate Victa Grosso getting up to win the Gold Cup Final. Victa Grosso had a perfect preparation leading up to the final. He set a new personal best time two starts back when he ran 30.66 over the 531m on October 13. He was a strong winner in his heat, defeating Rosie Red and running a time of 30.76. The lead-up meant he was perfectly prepared to win the final and that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t lead initially but he weaved a passage through the field to run over the top and run a time of 30.90. Rosie Red ran second for the Stamenkovic kennel and was quite impressive. Victa Hadyn wasn’t too far away running third. This was Tony Rasmussen’s second Gawler Cup win after he took out the prestigious race in 2018 with his star chaser Honcho Monelli.
Another highlight of the meeting was the 2021 Gawler Sprint Classic Final over 400m. The race appeared to be very even and there was plenty of young talent in the field. Zipping Walter was the winner for trainer Ben Rawlings. He began perfectly from box four and carved down to the rail to lead all of the way. He ran a time of 22.79 in the process. Talented chaser Patched ran second for Nicole Price and race favourite She’s A Hotshot ran third for Troy Murray. Zipping Walter is owned by the Beach Worm Capital syndicate. The large syndicate went out onto the track after the race to take a winning photo and every owner was obviously very happy after the race. Ben Rawlings also took out the Gawler Carnival Of Cup trainers award for the night which saw his kennel take home a $500 voucher courtesy of Gawler Stock Feeds.
Veteran chaser Aston Cade took out the Gawler Gold Cup Consolation for Matthew Payne which was the other feature race on the night. Overall, the night was very successful for the club and we look forward to seeing the event grow over the coming years.
