After Narrabri pacer Corporal Luna won the Billy Grima Memorial on Sunday evening, as part of the Tamworth harness meeting, trainer Jarred Hetherington summed the win up well.
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"It was a good field and it is always good to see the Memorial race stay local," Hetherington said.
"It was a real honour to win the race - Billy was a stalwart in the north west."
"I can't praise the family enough - Joyce, Nick, Michael and Paul are all still involved in harness racing."
After drawing the one barrier it was expected that Corporal Luna would lead the field with Tom Ison handling the reins, but not long after the start they were crossed by the Mark Callaghan-trained Lacey's Lad.
Ison then elected to race Corporal Luna three back on the inside running line.
"We thought if he got the lead, he (Corporal Luna) could win but we got crossed early and it was a good decision by Tom (Ison) to go to the fence. The horse came home over the top of them in the end," Hetherington said.
Lacey's Lad controlled the field with Jack Callaghan taking the reins behind the Hunter Valley pacer, while Threo, from the Ricky Gordon stables, raced out in the breeze with Maddison Simon in the gig.
The final turn saw trainer-reinswoman Lola Weidemann take a challenge up to Lacey's Lad with her pacer He's Novak, and they looked to have the race in hand before Corporal Luna made a last-minute dash.
In a thrilling finish Corporal Luna won by a head over He's Novak with Lacey's Lad 5.5 metres away third.
"I was worried with the horse being a stayer that the speed wouldn't be on enough for him," Hetherington said.
Conducted over the 1980 metres, the first two quarters were contested in 32 seconds and 30.6 seconds respectively.
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"They (field) started running up the back straight," added Hetherington with the final two quarters contested in 28.7 seconds and 30.3 seconds.
Hetherington said the eight-year-old, who was having race start 187 and notched his 23rd career race win to add to his prize purse of over $200,000, "is a lovely horse to have around the stables".
He has had the Elsu- ind Fake Cash gelding in his stables for nine race starts, producing four wins from the former Queensland pacer.
"Greg Mitchell - GSM Racing - races Corporal Luna and is a good client and owner of mine" he said.
Corporal Luna established a mile rate of 1.59.4 for 1980 metres.
