Stanhope trainer-driver Gary Pekin ended the Echuca Harness Racing Club’s Caledonian Hotel Easter Cup meeting in sensational fashion — winning the last two events and matching Jack Laugher’s driving double from earlier in the evening.
Pekin had only the two starters on the program and had to wait until 9.22pm when Cresco Goldigger was sent out a $6.50 chance.
Both his winners on the evening, Cresco Goldigger and So She Said, upset hot favourites in their respective events.
Cresco Goldigger was having his 40th race start, having won a month ago at Albury as a $9 shot.
The six-year-old gelding’s half-neck defeat of $1.80 favourite Wemade Freo was the first leg of a winning double for the 60-year-old trainer-driver, who was fresh from a winner at Shepparton only five days earlier.
Pekin then created a late-night sensation when he had the better of a similarly tight finish in the last race with So She Said.
So She Said, a four-year-old mare having her 12th race start, beat $1.45 favourite Polly Peachum to claim the Arch Electrical Group Pace.
• Kyabram-trained, and part-owned, Hanover Starzzz won the fourth event as a $7.50 chance, the mare’s third win at its 20th start.
It was a special moment for Sue Finn, a long-time owner who connected with trainer Mark Watson for the first time with Hanover Starzzz.
Watson’s wife, Michelle, said the owners had been really patient with the horse, who had been lightly raced due to complications.
Mrs Finn said connections were not that confident going into the race, which was being used more as a trial for the mare.