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Leviathan owner-breeder Bob Peters won the Perth Cup for the eight time on Saturday with the rank outsider of his five starters in the $500,000 feature at Ascot.
The Adam Durrant-trained Star Exhibit won the G2 Perth Cup (2400m) for a second time but he had not won a race for 616 days with his recent form so lacklustre that he went to the post as a $31 chance.
The field featured five runners owned by Peters including the first and second favourites Action and Mississippi Delta.Co-trainers Grant and Alana Williams sent out Action, Mississippi Delta and Perfect Jewel for Peters while Durrant also started Royal Star for the leading owner-breeder.
Ridden by veteran jockey Peter Hall, the 7YO Star Exhibit stormed home from the rear of the field to beat the $3.20 favourite Action, ridden by Perth’s champion jockey William Pike, by a neck. Prize Catch finished third with Mississippi Delta fourth.Star Exhibit won R8 -Perth Cup on Perth Cup Day at pic.twitter.com/hDgjbojJ4a
— Perth Racing January 5, 2019
It was the third Perth Cup win for 51-year-old Hall after his previous victories on Black Tom in 2006 and Delicacy in 2016.
Star Exhibit won his first Perth Cup on New Year’s Eve in 2016 when the race was run twice in the same calendar year.Peters won his first Perth Cup with Field Officer in 1993 followed by Crown Prosecutor (2005), Lords Ransom (2010), Western Jewel (2012), Real Love (2015) Delicacy (January 1 2016) and Star Exhibit (December 31 2016).
Adam Durrant, who also trained Lords Ransom and Real Love for Peters, said he had persevered with Star Exhibit after the stayer suffered injury setbacks after his first Perth Cup win.“He’s an older horse now and he’s got some mileage on his clock,” DUrrant said.
“You’ve got to keep patching him up.“Credit to my staff. Honestly I thought it was probably a bridge too far for him but he mowed down the young gun.”
Peters has enjoyed a spectacular run of success in the last six weeks with his big team dominating the major races at the Perth summer carnival led by the G1 wins of Galaxy Star and Arcadia Queen in the Railway Stakes and Kingston Town Classic.
