Eagle Commander showed superiority to win the $12,000 Hygain Star Maker Three-Year-Old Final for Bathurst trainer and reinsman Nathan Hurst as part of the Tamworth HRC Carnival of Cups meeting on Sunday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"It's great to win the Star Maker again," Hurst said.
"Tulhurst Jailbreak won it for us last time."
Eagle Commander also presented Hurst with a training double after Peggyville, who was driven by his wife Angela Hedges, had won the previous race - the Roadworks Industries Dash For Cash over 1230 metres.
READ ALSO:
After no luck in the Prelude conducted the week prior Eagle Commander finished eighth to Justa Little Bit from the Jarrod Alchin stables.
"We got a good run through at around the 1,200 mark tonight," said Hurst, who after commencing from the eight barrier sat at the rear of the field with Tamworth pacer Galvarino (Richard Williams) leading the pack.
"It worked out good going then," he added.
"Better than last week when he (Eagle Commander) didn't have any luck and it was hard to make ground on them."
Racing out in the lead Eagle Commander then had to handle race pressure from Justa Little Bit racing out in the breeze.
"He (Justa Little Bit) came up quick and I had to pull the ear plugs on my horse to keep his mind on the job," Hurst said.
"Tonight, we managed to get to the front and he loves being there."
Eagle Commander went on for a 7.4 metre win over $1.60 race favourite Justa Little Bit with Jackomondo (Peter Hedges) 3.4 metres away third.
"I love coming up here to Tamworth for their Carnival and to win a feature is great," Hurst added.
Speaking about her win with Peggyville, Hedges said when they galloped on the turn she was "right in the race.
"We were pretty confident and just needed a little bit of luck," she added.
With Bo Yang (Murray Sullivan) leading the field from the one barrier the Alectown-trained gelding stepped out of his gear, disrupting the field.
Once the field settled Hedges landed in the one-by-one, with Dynamic Dynamite (Jake Hughes) leading the field, before electing to send Peggyville on his way in the shorter distance race on the final turn.
Peggyville went on for 2.3 metre win over Dynamic Deejay with Right On With It (Guy Chapple) another metre away third, and produced a mile rate of 1.56 for the 1230 metres.
"He had to do some work when they galloped to get up into the one by one and I was just a bit worried that he might stop but he kept going," Hedges said.
Peggyville has been a great campaigner with the 10-year-old Bullville-Peggyart gelding picking up his 11th race win at start 116.
