Victorem's Country Championships win is trainer's dream come true
Port Macquarie trainer Jenny Graham has gone from delight to devastation during the Country Championship, but Victorem made the $500,000 final the best day of her life at Randwick on Saturday.
The first horse to book a place in the final charged along the rails to win by two lengths from favourite Don’t Give A Damn with O’ So Hazy a long head back in third.
Graham had prepared the trifecta in the mid north coast qualifier but injuries to Awesome Pluck and Portatorio ruled them out of the trip to Randwick, leaving her with only Victorem.
Super run: Ben Looker rides Victorem to win the Country Championships final at Randwick.
Photo: AAP“I thought Port was pretty good but this is the best day of my life,” Graham said. “It seems such a long time ago he qualified (on February 18) and then the other two got hurt and I was devastated.”
“I was devastated for the other owners because this is the dream,” Graham said. “You have been preparing for this day for so long and for them not to be here was bad.
“I still came here only hoping because I knew we had a good horse but I wasn’t as confident as Benny Looker. He kept telling me it would just win.”
Looker has been on Victorem for all six of his starts, five wins with the only defeat coming when he bucked at his debut in Casino.
“This is my Melbourne Cup, obviously being in the bush you don’t find many progressive horses, let alone any as good as Victorem,” Looker said. “I was so confident that he was the best horse in the race and I knew if I got it right he would win like that.”
Looker had to resort to plan B in the straight after Kerrin McEvoy on Don’t Give A Damn wouldn't be moved.
“I was trying to force a run that shut on me, I was just lucky that when the gap opened up the inside I just had that explosive turn of foot,” Looker said.
“I think eventually he might run a mile, he’s still learning what he is doing, he just needs to relax a bit and when he does the sky is his limit.”
Graham could press on for a winter campaign in Brisbane, via the Scone carnival with the Stradbroke a possible target, but the Ramornie Handicap at Grafton is also an option.
“I like the idea of all those options but for now I’m just going to enjoy this, for a while,” Graham said.