Racing: Scorcher Cup win another for team

Scorching scored another big race win for Christchurch owners Jim and Susan Wakefield in the $27,500 Invercargill Cup at Ascot Park.

The Wakefields and Scorching's Christchurch trainer, Cran Dalgety, have had considerable success together.

Other winners for the combination include Sparks A Flyin (22 wins), London Legend (11 wins), Jovial Joker (eight wins), London Pride (eight wins), London Express (eight wins) and Glacier Bay (four wins).

Dalgety's stable driver, Mark Jones, has also played an important role in the Wakefields' success.

The couple and Dalgety were unable to come south for Scorching's emphatic victory on Saturday.

The Wakefields met Dalgety through his father, Jim.

Susan Wakefield was Jim's accountant.

Breezy Fella (three wins) was the first winner Cran Dalgety trained for the couple in the mid 1990s.

They bred Breezy Fella from I'm A Smiler, which was gifted to them by Jim Dalgety.

Goldenrod, owned by the Wakefields, is a two-year-old sister to Cigar (12 wins) showing promise in Cran Dalgety's stable.

Scorching will be rested for four days before beginning his build up to the Interdominions at Alexandra Park next month.

Dalgety might start him in a free-for-all at Addington on February 18.

The horseman's former open class pacer, Desperate Comment, won heats of the Interdominions at Addington, Christchurch (1995), Gloucester Park, Perth (1996); and Globe Derby, Adelaide (two heats, 1997).

Jones said Scorching was off the bit until the 500m in Saturday's Cup.

"We got a good three wide trail into the race which was a big asset," he said.

"I was confident with the run we got that we'd win. They went hard [in front] early and when he comes out, he's got instant speed."

Jones did not use his whip. The half-brother to Roman Gladiator cruised clear by two lengths in 4:2.6 (3200m).

The victory brought up Jones' 648th career win in eight years of race driving.

All Talk, which was held up on the turn by his weakening stablemate, Glossy, finished second, half a length ahead of Lucky third.

"We lost ground coming around the bend and that makes it hard," reinsman Jim Curtin said of All Talk.

"He came home really good."

Up-and-comer Lucky was a game second for driver John Dunn.

"We were a bit slow away and he's done a lot of work during the race, Dunn said.

"There was no way we could have beaten the winner."

King Sands' refusal to begin with the field cost him dearly, driver Terry Chmiel said.

"He just stood on the mark and lost it then."

King Sands finished 13th while Phantom Menace, the last one home, pulled up lame.

- NZPA