VETERAN Wodonga galloper Firetime saluted in his farewell race with a commanding performance in the $3500 Dederang Cup (1650m) on Saturday.
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The seven-year old gelding, trained by Wodonga’s Liz Aalbers and being steered by Robert Anderson (in one of three wins for the day), hit the front about 600m from home and was never threatened up the hill to win comfortably by 1? lengths, giving Aalbers her third Dederang Cup.
Aalbers announced Firetime would be retired win, lose or draw prior to the race, leaving the horse with a record of 13 wins and 12 places from 53 starts.
She said the gelding’s top weight of 69kg had her worried pre-race but that Firetime ($2.90) proved too classy.
“On his day he would pick them up and carry them, he’s a lot better horse,” she said.
“But he’s at the end of his tether and he was giving them four and five kilos, so that sort of took the gloss off.
“But in the run he was never going to get beat.
“The mile suits him, he ran at Wodonga in the shorter course and he ran a fair race, but he was sort of never going to get beat.
“(Anderson) did what I told him to do, he went to the front a fair way from home I was a little bit worried about that with the 69kg, but he was travelling too easy for them.
“He nursed him uphill and then made his move down the back.
“It was a good win, good ride.”
Outside chance Asian Tales ($8) was second while favourite Surfcoast Racer ($2.30, which was backed in late from $5), was third.
Aalbers said it was sad to see Firetime race for the last time.
“It’s sad because he’s been such an honest little horse, but you’ve got to face facts it’s no good to run them into the ground,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with him, he’s not up to city class but he’s won about five cups and as long as they win.”
Aalbers said she expected a bit of interest from buyers for the gelding.
“He’ll got to a good home, people will pay a bit of money for a horse like that because he’s bomb proof, a good sort of a horse,” she said.
It’s the third win for Aalbers in the Dederang Cup, one of her favourite meets of the year.
“They do a good job up there, they look after you, the committee really looked after us,” she said.
“It was a pleasure to go up there, there’s so many people you know, so many friendships.
“If we get another one we’ll be back there again next year.”
