Terror dominates the 50th Bendigo Pacing Cup

12 January 2014 - Im Corzin Terror produced a brilliant frontrunning performance to win Saturday night's PETstock Bendigo Pacing Cup in dominant style.
Aided by a masterful drive from Chris Alford, Im Corzin Terror ($3) won by the best part of 15m from Wartime Sweetheart ($5.60), with outsider Uncle Wingnut ($44.30) running a bold race in third place. The 50th edition of the Cup at Lord's Raceway proved to be a third victory in the race for Alford (Tailamade Lombo 2000 and Knight Rainbow 1995) and a first win in the $50,000 event for Lara-based trainer Dean Braun. "I have a very high opinion of this horse,'' Braun said after the win. "Everything hasn't gone his way of late, but he showed what he can do tonight.
"He's just a lovely horse."The Cup was expected to be a shootout between Im Corzin Terror and favourite Bitobliss ($2.50 fav.), but it didn't eventuate. Once Im Corzin Terror crossed stablemate Mustang Mach to find the lead, Alford rated the six-year-old to perfection. He cruised through the first quarter of the last mile in 30.1 seconds, before slightly upping the tempo with a 28.3 second quarter. The slow tempo up front forced driver Scott Stewart to put Bitobliss into the race three wide with a lap to go. Alford put the foot down 600m from home and Bitobliss found little. Im Corzin Terror scorched away from his rivals to win comfortably, while Bitobliss struggled into 10th place. "He's had no luck his past four starts, but he made amends tonight,'' Alford said. "Once we got to the front he travelled beautifully. "We got away with a cheap quarter early and from there he was always going to be hard to beat. "Even after the slow tempo early, he's still run 1:57.7 for the mile rate so that's still good time."He's a pretty good horse." Minutes after Im Corzin Terror's win, Caribbean Blaster took out the Group One South Australia Cup in Adelaide. Alford is confident Im Corzin Terror will measure up to the top line pacers in next month's Hunter Cup. "He's improving all the time,'' he said. "With the right run he'll be more than competitive against those really good horses." The great Vin Knight (five wins) is the only driver to have more success than Alford in the Bendigo Pacing Cup."It's been a nice race for me, hopefully there's a few more to come,'' Alford said. - Adam Bourke (Bendigo Advertiser)