Penny Black’s courageous win in Lombardo Classic

Tough mare Penny Black (Sweet Lou) had to draw on all her resilience when she outstayed her rivals in winning the $50,000 Group 3 Lombardo Classic for fillies and mares at Gloucester Park last night.

A short priced favourite with harness racing fans, Penny Black didn’t get things her own way as she could not cross Peaceful in the early stages and driver Gary Hall Junior had no option but to go forward and sit one out in the breeze.

To make the situation more difficult, Jocelyn Young aboard Peaceful couldn’t settle her in the lead as she was over racing and in doing so broke up the field thus setting up a clear space between herself and the others.

At various stages of the testing 2536 metre journey Peaceful had a lead of up to 30 metres.

Her stablemate Castella Dellacqua was behind the leader. Even entering the back straight on the final occasion Peaceful was still 20 metres in front but she started to shorten along the back straight.

PENNY BLACK MAR 7 REPLAY LOMBARDO CLASSIC

Penny Black reached the lead on the final bend but Montana Glory, Wonderful to Fly and Nullabor Navajo who all had a comfortable sit behind started to swoop down the outside.

However Penny Black continued to respond to Hall’s driving and she held to defeat Montana Glory by just under three metres from Montana Glory with Wonderful to Fly finishing third.

Hall Junior was full of praise for the striking black mare.

“She’s a great race mare. She’s awesome fun to drive. You never give up on her as she’s always got something there.”

“I was sort of happy of what Peaceful was doing because it sort of took care of itself. I wouldn’t have to worry about putting the pressure on her.”

“It’s always hard to be the first to chase that runaway leader, the horses in the first part of the pack face a tough task holding out the sweepers.”

“She loves it when they come at her, she always seems to find even when she’s on the canvas. That’s the beauty of her.”

Trained by Michael Young Penny Black returned a credible mile rate of 1.56.3 made even more by the fact that she had by far the hardest run in the field.

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink