PAUL Perry celebrated another Akubra Quirindi Cup (1600m) triumph when San Francisco strode to a superlative win on Friday.
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The four-year-old gelding sprinted clear down the hill to register a two-and-a-quarter-length win in the $50,000 race.
Local prospect Vega de Lago (Geoff O’Brien) was second, with Melted Moments (Paul Grills) a head away third.
Shaun Guymer rode San Francisco for the top-line Newcastle stable and while the gelding son of Ilovethiscity finished brilliantly, his early race was unkind.
“He was all over the shop,” Guymer told Nathan Perry, the son of the trainer, post-race.
“Once he balanced up, though, he was right and all over them.”
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Nathan said it was a pleasure to win another Quirindi Cup after his father won the 1988 edition with Country Cove and then won the following year with Supperman.
“We also won another around then and a couple of years ago (Secret Web 2017),” Nathan said.
“Quirindi has been a good track to us.”
San Francisco wasn’t originally targeted for the Quirindi Cup.
“We were going to run him in Sydney last Friday,” Nathan admitted.
“But they had that big storm and I rang through and scratched.
"They turned around and brought him home.
"He was in two tomorrow [Saturday] but we decided to come here instead. It worked out real well.”
Vega de Lago might have been the unlucky runner.
The Cup runner-up gave jockey Greg Ryan a torrid time.
“He hung all the way,” O’Brien, the horse's trainer, said of his little gelding with a big ticker.
Ryan finished the day with a treble when Phuket won the final race.
Phuket rocketed home to win the $40,000 Quirindi RSL Lightning Showcase (1100m) by a length from Difficult To Get (Jeff Englebrecht)
Paul Perry’s Mr Grumpy was three quarters of a length away in third place.
Ryan had won earlier on Directory and Chuck ’n’ Paul.
“Three wins and a second in the Cup was a good day,” he said.