Classy Goulburn visitor Don't Give A Damn created Snake Gully Cup history with a gusty victory in the feature race at Gundagai on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Don't Give A Damn ($2.70) carried a record weight of 60.5 kilograms to win the $100,000 Snake Gully Cup (1400m) in front of a bumper crowd.
The well-supported favourite claimed Queanbeyan galloper Up Trumpz ($9.00) inside the final 50 metres to score by a neck and become the first horse to carry more than 58kg to win the prestigious race.
Wagga mare Lady Mironton ran a gallant third, 3 lengths back, after being caught wide without cover for the trip.
It was a first Snake Gully Cup victory for Goulburn trainer Danny Williams, leading Southern District jockey Blaike McDougall and owner-breeder Keith Carmody, of Young.
Williams virtually gave up on Don't Give A Damn mid-race but declared class got the six-year-old over the line.
"I don't know whether he was (back at his best). I thought he was a million to one," Williams said.
"I was very confident he could win coming here, he seemed very well but he was slow away, then he just didn't want to go.
"The track got to a (good) three and dried out. In the past, it's brought him undone, the really firm tracks, and I think with the 61.5 (including vest) he's carried today he just felt the ground and his class brought him home.
"It's very exciting."
Williams was relieved as much as he was honoured to win the iconic Gundagai feature.
"It's a relief. It's fantastic, it's a feather in my cap and it's always nice to win these major country cups," he said.
"It's great ambience here, it just goes to show how good of racing it is here at Gundagai for the Snake Gully Cup and you've only got to look out and see the crowd. It's a unique meeting because it holds its atmosphere and tradition. It's a great privilege to win."
Don't Give A Damn's victory was Carmody's first winner at Gundagai and he could not have picked a better race to enjoy his maiden success.
"It's been a great thrill and a great honour to win the Cup," Carmody said.
Williams will sit down with Carmody to discuss future plans for Don' Give A Damn but is keen on a crack at the group two Villiers Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on December 14.
The race was not without drama with the late scratching of Canberra sprinter Viceroy delaying the start of the feature.
Viceroy threw jockey Kayla Nisbet on the way to the gates and broke away. Nisbet injured her ankle in the fall, which robbed her of the opportunity of winning a third straight Snake Gully Cup.
READ MORE
