Champion trainer Jason Thompson will be chasing his fifth Group 2 Horsham Cup when star speedsters Explicit and Verdi line up in the $55,000 to-the-winner final (485m) on Friday night.
Both were impressive heat winners – Explicit ($1.50F, 26.92sec) and Verdi ($2.00F, 27.21sec) – and either could also incredibly provide Thompson with a G2 country cup clean sweep thus far this year. He's already won the Warragul Cup (Tim Zoo) on January 13 and Traralgon Cup (Unleash Collinda) on January 26.
Explicit and Verdi offered some solace for the shock scratching of Thompson's recent G1 Australian Cup winner Tim Zoo from the Horsham Cup series.
Thompson has won the Horsham Cup with Monsters Inc (2003), Marungi Blaze (2006), Winsome History (2007) and Typhoon Sammy (2022).
Meanwhile, the fastest heat winner was Tangela Bale ($1.70F, 26.75sec) – prepared by Rob Camilleri– who defeated a gallant Nature Strip ($5.70) by 1.90L. Trained by Dave Geall, Nature Strip, in fact, clocked the second fastest heat time (26.88sec).
Only last Tuesday, Tangela Bale semaphored a near-track record at Horsham with a sizzling 10L romp in 26.71sec – only 0.05sec (just under one length) off the 26.66sec track record set by Soda Titan on February 5, 2022.
The remaining heat winner was Grand Tourer ($9.70, 27.32sec) – trained by Stephen Bruce.
Explicit (Box 8, $2.30) and Tangela Bale (Box 5, $2.35) are virtually going head-to-head in Sportsbet's fixed odds betting on the final. Then follows Nature Strip (Box 1) and Verdi (Box 4) – both at $7.
Two heats of the Sylvia Penny Memorial were also decided on the nine-race card. The winners were Wrong Bias ($1.60F, 23.02sec) and Hidden Stones ($1.60F, 23.31sec).
