TOP Tasmanian reinsman Ricky Duggan created history at Devonport Showground last Sunday night when he guided Queen Of Fire to victory in the Bullock Consulting Devonport Cup over 3020 metres.
Duggan became the only driver to win the Devonport Cup five times.
His previous wins were aboard Gold Label (1995), Shiver Me Timbers (1997), The Fence Breaker (2001 and Daman in 2005.
Queen Of Fire was sent out favourite at $3.90 but punters had reason to feel slightly jaded when the mare broke at the start and tailed to near last.
But Duggan stayed calm and settled his charge back in the field and with just under a lap remaining he sent her charging around the field and she swallowed her rivals up in the home straight to score a convincing win from Spot Nine and Notaswethort.
Duggan was thrilled with the win and while he typically played down the achievement he heaped praise on the mare.
“She was in a piggy mod at the start and when they released the tapes she just stood there and then she stepped away too quickly and went into a gallop so I thought I was history,” Duggan said.
“But she tracked into the race nicely from the 1000-metre mark behind two of Grant Hodges’ horses (Spot Nine and Empty Envelope) and I was happy going into the back straight the last time.”
“I didn’t want to get too cocky but I was pretty confident she was going to win because the leaders had run along a bit so I knew they’d come back to us,” he said.
It also was a milestone for Queen Of Fire’s young trainer Zeke Slater who has only held his licence for just over a year.
It was clearly his biggest win but it was his second Cup in the space of three weeks having won the Carrick Cup with new stable arrival Camivell Rock that also won coming off 40 metres in a race at New Norfolk last Saturday.
Slater, 24, races Queen Of Fire (Courage Under Fire-Penultimate) on lease from one of his top stable clients Merv Butterworth from Victoria.
“I’ve been training for Merv ever since I got my licence and he thought this mare would benefit from a change of scenery,” Slater said.
Since Queen Of Fire has been with Slater she won almost $30,000 in stakes.