Group 1 winner back in form for Community Cup

28 April 2014 - Group 1 winning veteran Villagem bounced back to winning form with a gallant victory in the Bendigo Sportsmen's Association Community Cup at Lord's raceway on Saturday night. Trained locally at Junortoun by Trevor Monk, Villagem was driven a treat by top reinsman Greg Sugars to land the Cup by 2 metres from a fast finishing classy mare Broadways Best (Gavin Lang). with a further 8 metres back to the 2014 Mildura Cup winner Im Blue Double Dee (Nathan Jack). It was the 2010 Chariots Of Fire winner, Villagem's first race win since September 2012 and the 8yo gelding's first for its new stable. Villagem tracked three wide at the bell before assuming control of the race on the final circuit and holding off a strong late finish from the 2011 Ladyship Mile winner. The winning mile rate was a slick 1.57.3  for the 2150metres. Owner Des Lingard was at Lord's Raceway to collect the Cup presented by Sportsmen's Association president Jim Harvey). Other trophy winners were I Dream It (David Abrahams/Daryl Douglas)  in the Braidies Tavern Community Trot Country Series Final; Paris Pepperell (David Van Ryn/ Hayden Gray) in the Elmore Events Community Cup Trot and Extremely Efficient (Tony Peacock/Nathan Jack)  in the Champions IGA Community Cup Pace. Local reinsman Daryl Douglas was the leading driver at the meeting with a winning treble, steering home the victors in three of the first four races. RELATED STORY