The South Coast visitor put in a strong effort to take out the $15,000 feature, sitting without cover to take the win.

Blackbird Power ($6) sustained a mid race challenge but still found enough to wear down $ 1.70 favourite Mackeral in the final stride.

He went on to win by a short half head and became the first horse to break two minutes for a marathon trip.

After an adjustment to the distance this season, Blackbird Power clocked a mile rate of 1:59.3 for the 2385 metres.

Reneging held the 2360m record at 2:00.5 for her 2013 cup win.

Trainer Gavin Kelly was thrilled with his effort, but wasn’t convinced he’d actually won.

“I didn’t actually think we’d won watching it live, I thought we’d just missed, but I was pleasantly surprised when our number came out,” Kelly said.

It was a tough performance from the six-year-old, and Kelly thought it was the making of him.

Long shot Our Leo ($151) tried to get himself into the race and Kelly thought it won him the race.

“The three-wide challenge probably won us the race,” Kelly said.

“It took the sting out of everyone else.

“I thought we had the toughest horse in the race, but he’s just not the fastest and if they had got another cheap sectional I don’t think we would have beat Mackeral as he would have had too much of a kick down the straight.”

While Blackbird Power seems to relish the Riverina cups, he might not be able to run in too many more with Kelly moving to Tasmania next month.

However the Temora win could be a good way to go out with the big crowd making for a special night.

“Outside of the success, the crowd and the support the town turns out is what makes the day even more special,” Kelly said.

“It’s not just a race day, it’s part of the community and it was nice to see a packed crowd at the trots as you definitely don’t get that at Menangle.”

The win was part of a driving double for Jimmy Brown.

He also caused an upset in the opening event of the night with Angle Dee Jay ($12) running down $1.40 favourite Mister Donald for Luke Primmer.

Despite just going down in the cup, Bathurst trainer-driver Bernie Hewitt also scored a winning double with Make Mine Memphis and Kept In Play taking out the two Evolution Series heats.

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