Nathans Courage blitzes Cup field to record dominant win

Classy pacer Nathans Courage has tuned up for a tilt at the $50,000 Nights Of Thunder Final later this month with a scintillating victory in the $10,000 Amity Tavern New Years Cup (2258m) in Albany on Saturday night.

In a significant boost to the Albany Harness Racing Club’s opening meeting of the season, leading metropolitan trainer Michael Brennan and star reinsman Gary Hall Jr made the trip to Harold Reid Paceway on New Year’s Eve.

The pair made their presence felt in the feature race as raging favourite Nathans Courage scored a dominant victory after starting from the front line of the eight-horse field.

Driven by Hall Jr, the four-year-old was sent forward to take the lead from Responder in the early stages and dictated terms up front before shooting clear on the last lap to claim the race by 19.9m over Responder with Little Astro Boy further back in third.

Nathans Courage started a very short $1.04 favourite on the tote after a last-start second to Soho Tribeca in the $200,000 Golden Nugget final at Gloucester Park and Brennan was always confident heading into the race.

“Obviously it was a big drop in grade but the horse travelled good and went really well,” he said.

“We wanted to come down and support the Albany club.

“Overall I was pretty happy with it all.” The Courage Under Fire gelding will compete in the Nights Of Thunder heats this Friday night before aiming for the final on Friday, January 13 at Gloucester Park.

Brennan and Hall Jr finished with a winning double on the eight-race card after talented three-year-old Im Rockaria earlier smashed the 2258m track record with a blistering performance in the Albany Legal Pace (2258m).

Heavily supported into a $1.10 favourite, the gelding showed terrific speed to lead all the way and down Bethany Aitch by 22.4m on the line.

Im Rockaria set a sizzling mile rate of 1min. 58.1sec. to smash the previous mark of 1:59.0 set by Another Vinnie in January, 2015.

Brennan said his young star pacer had been set for the $200,000 WA Derby on April 7.

“It was fantastic to see Im Rockaria break the track record,” he said.

“He will be aimed at the WA Derby.

“Hopefully people enjoyed seeing a couple of real good horses go around and also to have Gary Hall there. A lot of people don’t get to see him drive live so hopefully they enjoyed that as well.”

Trainer-driver Nathan Turvey enjoyed a successful night out, driving promising filly Karlkurla to victory in the Koffee Boost Graduation Pace (2258m) to start the new season, and then scoring a victory as trainer when Chevrons Champion powered home late in the Community Tab Pace (2258m).