He’s the Master Cup Catcher

EVEN trainer Lisa McDonald marvelled at driver Grace Panella’s silky skills after the $1.40 favourite Master Catch took out the St Kilda/Grand Hotel Armidale Cup, one of three feature races at the Armidale HRC Carnival of Cups  meeting last Sunday.

Master Catch won his third Cup race in a matter of weeks with a win in December where the gelding won the Habitat Hunter Realty Cup at Maitland followed by the Garrard’s Tamworth City Cup in January before securing the Armidale Cup.

The win of Master Catch was just outside the track record set by Strathlachlan Andy in 2016 of 1.59.1 with Master Catch clocking 1.59.6 for 2360m.

“That was the best drive – I couldn’t believe it,” was how McDonald summed up the drive by Panella.

“The horse himself is a big strong unit generally and can take control, but Grace gets on well with the horse and I am really happy with the win.

“He is a tough horse and he doesn’t mind a challenge when he is racing,” added McDonald, who also owns Master Catch.

The race was run in quarters of 29.9s-28.8s-29.6s and a final split in  31.1s.

Panella had no trouble handling the eight-year-old Tiz A Masterpiece-Catch As Catch Can gelding who began from the eight barrier.

“The draw was perfect; the horse doesn’t have a great lot of gate speed so drawing the second row was pretty good,” said Panella.

“Having the three Queensland runners across the front, the race worked out exactly how I hoped it would.”

The Queensland pacers Panella was referring to were Bonnies Cam (Jonah Hutchison) from the one barrier, Artful Maid (Paige Bevan) from two and Our Major Day (Dayl March) from six.

With one lap completed the field settled with Our Major Day leading the race and Master Catch without cover.

“As soon as the speed was on early in the race I thought ‘perfect this is great’,” said Panella.

As the bell sounded, Master Catch found the lead and was joined by Major Bob (Michael Formosa) with last year’s Armidale Cup winner Gottashopearly (Tom Ison) on the final turn.

“This horse is pretty tough and if you drive him as a good horse he goes like a good horse,” said Panella, who went on to score a 4.7m win over Gottashopearly with Major Bob a head away third.

“The horse felt good in the race until we hit the front and he switched off a bit but he likes the challenge and when the other horses got up outside him on the turn he switched back on and did what he had to do,” she said.

“I knew the horses behind me had done a bit of work in the race and it was just a matter of keeping him going and keeping his mind on the job.

“He clicked into second gear down the home straight and came away from the field.

Panella also praised the 10-year-old runner-up Gottashopearly, who was looking for back-to-back wins in the feature.

“That was a big run for the reigning champ – he has done an awesome job, but sadly the reign had to finish this year,” said Panella.

• JULIE MAUGHAN