Family ties celebrated after Cup victory

FAMILY ties were celebrated following last night’s Gramel Trotters’ Cup at Globe Derby.

Driving Its Elvis to victory in the feature, Gaita Pullicino paid tribute to several members of her clan.

Along with being prepared by Frank Pullicino, Its Elvis is owned by Gaita’s sister-in-law, Julie Mifsud.

Mifsud is Gaita’s maiden name, with Julie married to the horsewoman’s brother, Austin.

“It’s always nice to win any race, especially a nice one like this, but it is even better when your family is involved all the way,” Gaita said.

“Julie and Aussie put so much into harness racing and it is always wonderful to see them get something back.

“It is a shame they can’t be trackside to see him, but that’s how it is at the moment.

“They watched the race on the television and got a big thrill from the win.”

Beginning well from his 20-metre mark, Its Elvis was caught three-wide before being sent forward to find the front as Aldebaran Broozer was eased to take a trail.

With Gaita maintaining an even tempo during the middle stages, the son of Sundon cruised to a four-and-a-half metre win from Coolbreeze, with Champagne Prince a metre-and-a-half away third.

“He went so well,” Gaita said. “I’m over the moon with him.

“We were pretty confident to tell the truth as he’s been working well and we’ve been able to figure him out and get him going a bit better.

“He is not an easy horse to train as he pulls very hard so we adjusted some things with him such as shoeing and it seems to have done the trick.

“Hopefully now he can keep going on with it.”

Named in honour of the finest squaregaiter to come out of South Australia, the Cup offered a $2000 service voucher to leading trotting sire Skyvalley or Aldebaran Eagle on top of the prizemoney thanks to the generosity of Aldebaran Park.

“Julie and Aussie will have to find themselves a decent trotting broodmare to use the Aldebaran Park voucher,” Gaita said.

“With a bit of luck they might get a nice trotter out of it in a few years.”