The big one won’t be coming back, but there was plenty of Goulburn Valley flavour on Inter Dominion grand final night at Menangle on Saturday night.
The $500,000 Inter Dominion Pacers Championship was won by the local chance and favourite, the Luke McCarthy-prepared Don Hugo, but former Avenel-trained warhorse Max Delight finished a gallant third for trainer David Aiken and Shepparton reinsman Nathan Jack.
Don Hugo sliced a second off the track record for the 2300m trip with his 1:50.5 mile rate which included a blistering 23.7 last half.
Max Delight finished 3.8m from the winner with Western Australian Minstrel splitting him and the winner at the finishing post.
The other Goulburn Valley-trained finalist, the Murchison-prepared Dangerous, finished fifth, 4.60m from the winner, while Shepparton-owned Curly James faded to 10th after a tough run.
But Shepparton-trained Cantfindabettorman and former Shepparton-trained trotter The Locomotive were winners at the meeting.
The Isabel Walsh-prepared Cantfindabettorman, a former stablemate of the pacers championship winner Don Hugo, led for most of the way to claim the Inter Dominion Pacers Consolation and pick up the $26,000 prizemoney for connections.
The Locomotive, formerly prepared by Shepparton horseman Wayne Potter, completed a clean sweep of the Inter Dominion Trotters Championship series with another dominant all-the-way win for new trainer and driver Brad Hewitt from Goulburn.
It was The Locomotive’s ninth win in succession and his 22nd in 35 starts.
He pocketed the $78,000 first prize to take his career earnings to more than $485,000 in prizemoney.