Victorian raider Aurora’s Symphony became the first galloper to go back to back in the Launceston Cup since local champ St Andrews achieved the feat in 2002/2003 when he took the Group 3 $300,000 feature over 2400 metres on Wednesday.
The race panned out in the same fashion as the previous year, with the Symon Wilde-trained gelded son of Glass Harmonium enjoying a gun run just off the speed from an inside alley under Blaike McDougall before scoring by a half-length over local roughie Rising Spirit, with Sydney galloper Spirit Ridge a short half-head away in third.
Wilde’s charge is now unbeaten from two runs this time in, having taken the Colac Cup — also for the second successive year — first up from a spell.
The other Group 3 on the card, the $150,000 Vamos Stakes for fillies and mares over 1400 metres, was taken out by the Julie Richards-prepared Jaja Chaboogie, who camped one-out, one-back under David Pires before prevailing narrowly over fellow local mare Sirene Stryker and Victorian four-year-old In Her Stride in an exciting three-way finish.
The victory made up for a luckless run in the Bow Mistress Stakes for the Your Song mare, who had little room when required in that feature.
The win gave Pires a feature double at the meeting as he also took the listed $150,000 Hellova Street over 1600 metres on The Inevitable, who thus rounded out his All Star Mile preparation with his sixth win from six starts this time in.
After settling second-last in the small six-horse field, Scott Brunton’s stable star hooked wide on straightening then quickly reeled in his rivals to score a soft 1½-length victory.
The gelded son of Dundeel seems assured of a start in the $5 million feature as at last count he was sitting seventh in voting, more than 1000 votes clear of the eighth-ranked Tuvalu, with the top 10 guaranteed a berth.
Elsewhere on the card Adam Trinder’s classy filly Jaguar Stone finally notched a win after chasing stablemate Bello Beau through much of this campaign, taking the $100,000 3YO Classic (1200m) under Blake Shinn.
The daughter of Spieth had to go back to the rear of the field from her wide draw before weaving a passage through the field to nail another stablemate, Muscle Up, right on the line.
Veteran hoop Dianne Parish kept up her recent run of success on outsiders by leading throguhout on Michael Trinder’s veteran sprinter Liffeybeau ($31) in the day’s other feature, the $50,000 Royal Rambo Quality over 1200 metres.
The nine-year-old gelding had to work hard to cross from the outside barrier to find the front but kept finding under Parish’s urgings to hold off Julius, who tried hard after chasing Trinder’s charge throughout.