Jilliby Nitro swamps them in Geelong Cup shock win

Veteran pacer Jilliby Nitro (Bettor’s Delight) came with a withering burst to upset his more fancied harness racing rivals in this years Apco Geelong Pacing Cup at the Beckley raceway on Saturday evening.

The quality field was headed by the Jason Grimson trained pair of Swayzee and Minos who were both expected to be strongly prominent.

Minos who was driven by Lochie Cook ended up a solid favourite ahead of Swayzee who was resuming following his unsuccessful stint at Alexandra Park in New Zealand in May this year.

Grimson elected to drive Swayzee. Bulletproof Boy was able to hold out the early lead but it wasn’t long before Minos issued a strong challenge to take up the running. Meanwhile Swayzee had followed the field through from his second row draw and Grimson then decided to go for the lead which he obtained without too much trouble.

The field was somewhat spread out with Jilliby Nitro a clear last just ahead of Ubetcha Tigerpie who was also well back.

Minos was stalking Swayzee who still looked to be travelling within himself in the back straight even when New Shuffle moved up alongside to issue a challenge. However Swayzee started to shorten stride in the home straight as Minos manoeuvred for an inside run. However Jilliby Nitro and Ubetcha Tigerpie both issued their runs out wide and in a desperate finish Jilliby Nitro prevailed over Ubetcha Tigerpie by a short half head with Minos a neck away third.

JILLIBY NITRO 3 OCT REPLAY

Earlier this year Jilliby Nitro took out the last edition of the Geelong Cup in April.

Driver Jason Lee was full of praise for Jilliby Nitro.

He’s just an unbelievable old horse and I give him a stinker (of a drive) on Monday night, and Paddy (Lee) let me know about it. So obviously Mom and Paddy to back him up and have the confidence that the run wasn’t going to affect him and that’s his go is the long journey.

I can just say I was giving him a good hit out on Monday night but I just reckon the vibe here tonight at Geelong, and I know it’s easy to say when you win but a good crowd on course and people around everywhere and it’s a great thrill to be able to win another cup with this bloke.

You get dreaming of winning big races and I was out jogging one after the field’s come out and I’d had a little thought to myself imagine if he got up and went back to back. So if  Monday night wasn’t there I’d be over the moon confident with where he was at, especially the long trip. He absolutely loves the long trip. But to be honest, Monday night didn’t really worry me too much. I knew that he’d come on from the run, and he probably just didn’t handle the early burn first up, and he’s not a great leader at times. So he’d come out on the track tonight and he was super sharp and and ready to go.

I did think he would get home, and I knew with Grimo’s pair in it it’d be a genuine run race and probably the biggest thing that I was thinking is I just didn’t want to be exposed early and in the run he was just traveling so well. I couldn’t have been happier. I just played a bit of cat and mouse to try and get on Stan’s (Michael Stanley’s) back. We nearly missed out on getting the job done but thankfully it worked out in the end and just had cover for so long. The race was so genuine and I wouldn’t say I was confident I was just going to win, but I thought we’d be definitely running on as the race went on.

He’s just won races and been competitive right through and we love him.

Through virtue of his win, Jilliby Nitro has now earned a crack at the Victoria Cup and Lee added

It’s very exciting. So it’s just nice to have horses in them races and you can’t win them unless you’re in them. So, you’ve got to dream big.

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink