Tommy in massive Ballarat Cup boil-over

Sun 29 Jan

Highview Tommy has caused one of the biggest upsets in recent memory to defeat both Sushi Sushi and Smoken Up in last night's $125,000 Group 1 PETstock Ballarat Pacing Cup. In a race expected to crown the true king of pacing, it proved an anti-climax as the $102 outsider produced a devastating finishing burst to just nab the very brave Sushi Sushi ($1.90) in the final bounds and deny him a seventeenth straight victory. The win capped a remarkable night for Mark Purden who was also successful with Auckland Reactor in The Pure Steel and I Can Doosit who dead-heated in an Inter Dominion trotters heat. Never really in a winning position in the straight, Smoken Up (2.60) was his usual brave self finishing in third position a further four metres away. Purden will now aim Highview Tommy at the $425,000 Group 1 Hunter Cup in a two pronged attack alongside stable mate Auckland Reactor.