After Neil Dyer’s Bear Story decimated his rivals in the Chief Minister’s Cup (1600m) on Saturday, stablemate Hettinger destroyed his rivals in the Toyota Finance Cup (1600m) at Fannie Bay on Wednesday.
Clearly, Bear Story and Hettinger are cherry-ripe to deliver the Victorian trainer a fourth Darwin Cup (2050m) on August 5, following the success of Hawks Bay (2011 and 2012) and Royal Request (2017).
Hettinger starred in the NT last year, with the son of I Am Invincible always returning for the Darwin Cup.
The five-year-old gelding certainly produced something out of the box against 0-76 opposition on Wednesday, when he was easily 15 lengths off the pace passing the 1200m before flicking the switch.
The front-running American Jazz still held a big lead at the 600m, but Hettinger ($4) was motoring and had caught the five other runners despite sitting in seventh place.
Leaving the fence and swinging three deep at the home turn, fifth-placed Hettinger gobbled up American Jazz at the 250m before sprinting clear to cream Chris Pollard’s Hamlet Von Snitzel ($21), who was second throughout, and Gary Clarke’s Pink Panther ($2 fav) by 7.4 lengths.
For Noel Callow, Gold Coast’s Group 1 winning jockey, it was back-to-back Darwin features after partnering Bear Story.
Hettinger was fifth behind Clarke’s Wolfburn on his Darwin return in the ROANT Gold Cup (1300m) on June 29, but was only 3.4 lengths adrift after travelling three deep the whole trip.
Going into Wednesday’s $50,000 race, Hettinger had only won races for Dyer beyond 1300m.
2024 Toyota Finance Cup Replay – Hettinger
Murray Bridge trainer Heather Lehmann won The Rose Bowl (1300m) – the Carnivals’ $35,000 feature for the fillies and mares – for the second time when Lucky Fortuna (Emma Lines) finished powerfully in the home straight to make it three wins from as many starts since returning to the Top End.
The four-year-old mare, who had two wins from six starts in Darwin a year ago, finished sixth in The Rose Bowl (0-70) during the 2023 Carnival and was the $2.35 favourite with horse racing bookmakers on Wednesday before saluting by 0.9 lengths.
Lehmann won The Rose Bowl in 2016 with Alphabetic, and in the 2024 edition, Lucky Fortuna, the daughter of Smart Missile, settled in fifth place along the back before making ground on the leaders at the 600m.
Lucky Fortuna had weaved her way to the front by the 200m after overtaking the leader, Fly Nice, before beating Angela Forster’s Zoumist ($9.50) and Kym Healy’s Starlite Rebel ($21) home.
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