SANTA Ana Lane unleashed a sensational sprint to deliver Hall Of Fame trainer Lee Freedman his second Wagga Town Plate, 33 years apart.
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Lee and Anthony Freedman enjoyed their first Town Plate win as a training partnership as Santa Ana Lane ($10.00) blew his rivals away on Thursday.
Mark Pegus made the most of a late pick up ride and brought Santa Ana Lane down the extreme outside to run away with a 2¼ length victory.
Albury sprinter Lord Von Costa flashed home for second place, while Hermosa Beach hit the line strongly along the inside to grab third for Matthew Dale and Tommy Berry.
Lee Freedman won the Town Plate in 1984 with Fervour as a young trainer on the up and sent Santa Ana Lane to Wagga this year to repeat the dose.
“This is a huge honour. I knew this meant a bit to Lee, he won this race back in 1984 on his way to Melbourne,” Freedman’s racing manager Brad Taylor said.
“I know Lee was pretty happy to be sending horses back here, trying to win the race, he’s mentioned it before to me so it’s wonderful.”
Santa Ana Lane was a group three winner as a three-year-old but had not won since that triumph in February last year.
He carried 61 kilograms on Thursday and let down strongly, something that did not surprise the Freedman stable, winning in a slick time of 1:09.48.
“If he showed his best ability, we knew he was the best horse in the race,” Taylor said.
“He’s been disappointing at his first two starts this campaign but the wet track at Randwick didn’t help him last time, so you just put a line through that, and today he was able to get back on a good track and show his best.”
Albury’s Dick Sloane is one of many owners in Santa Ana Lane and the Freedman yard was particularly pleased to win for him.
“Dick Sloane, who is a part-owner in the horse, and a local bloke, is going through a bit of a hard time, he lost his mother early in the week,” Taylor said.
“So it means a lot to him to win this local feature and hopefully it’s a good tonic for the week for him.”
Wagga trainer Dave Heywood’s long history with the Town Plate continued with Man Of Peace running a gallant fourth.
“He went fantastic. They’ve run 1.09 something so you can’t run any faster than that,” Heywood said.
“Simon (Miller) thought he was going to win it at the furlong and a quarter but the winner has just gone woosh.
“He ran out of his skin though, I’m rapt.”