Sport
18 March, 2026
Hot to trot at Charlton’s biggest meet of year
A HOT day with little or no breeze and a better class of horse were perfect conditions for track record breaking times at the Charlton Cup meeting on Sunday.
A HOT day with little or no breeze and a better class of horse were perfect conditions for track record breaking times at the Charlton Cup meeting on Sunday.
In the Cricket Club Hotel Pace, the winner Heatseeker lead from the pole draw and kept the speed on for the entirety of the 2100m race.
They managed a win by 15.10m and rating 1.54.7 to break the track record set by Bondi Lockdown in 2021.
Bondi Lockdown later raced with success in North America.
Thirty minutes later in the Greg Norman Memorial Pace the winner, Fire Marshall, went quicker again when it lead all the way from barrier two and in doing so rated 1.54.5 for the 2100m and winning by 11.30m.
The Trotters Cup was a 2570m standing start event that saw the Brent Lilley trained pair of Maestro, C Alford and El Conqueror, T Larsen run the quinella with the winner’s time being only 0.2 seconds outside the trotters track record of One Over All in 2023.
In the Pacers Cup, a 2570m mobile start, the eventual winner, Miki To Success looked to be classes above the opposition on form and so it proved.
The five-year-old stallion, who was driven by Jackie Barker, worked hard in the run but was too good at the finish scoring by 4.50m and in doing so shaved almost two seconds off the previous record of 1.56.5 that was first set in 2015.
Earlier in the week, the Tormey family, Alison, John and Ellen were successful at Echuca with their seven-year-old mare The Ladybird and at Bendigo on Wednesday Jack and Tarah McNamara were back in the winner’s circle when their trotter Poppy Popstar won her ninth race at her ninety-ninth start. The winner by Danny Bouchea was bred by Greg Hargreaves and was driven that night by James Herbertson.
Tonight they race again at Bendigo with the McIntyre’s last start winner Shudaboughtaboat in race 4 at 7.42pm and next Monday night they race under lights at Ararat.
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