The 2023 $175,000 bet365 Swan Hill Cup – raced in front of a record crowd of more than 5000 – has been won by topweight Not Usual Glorious in a major boil over.
Sent out at double figures – and carrying the most weight of any winner since 2005 – Beau Mertens, on the six-year-old gelding, joined odds-on favourite Keats at the pointy end of the field the whole way around the 1600m.
But when the going got tough the cups specialist dug deep in the heavy going down the straight and even though he looked as though he was going up and down the in the one spot, the rest looked even worse.
Keats – the Irish-bred and raced six-year-old gelding – was backed for a mozza but never looked like catching the winner.
Despite lugging all that extra baggage, even the briefest of glances at this horse’s cup form should have been a bellringer.
Since winning the Apsley Cup a year ago this week, across Victoria and South Australia, and including today, Not Usual Glorious has run in 10, won four of them and placed in three others.
Obviously some people did their homework, as he was backed in from 15/1 to start at 10/1 – but still a long way from Keats which would have paid $1.70 for the win.
Delighted trainer Travis Doudle described his horse as “a marvel, so tough and honest”.
“All the travelling he does just doesn’t bother him one iota, he just gets home, eats and drinks and bounces back within two days – he’s such a fantastic horse to train,” he added.
“To come back from a Warrnambool Cup (where he finished second on May 4) and freshen up for this is a real credit to the horse.”
