A HUGE night at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday turned out to be a big night too for Maiden Gully trainer Maree Campbell and her much-loved pacer Belittled.
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The six-year-old gelding saved a career-best performance for one of the biggest nights on the harness racing calendar by winning the final race on A.G. Hunter Cup night.
Driven by Greg Sugars, Belittled came from second last on the home turn to flash past his rivals and score his maiden metropolitan win.
It capped an ultra-pleasing weekend for the Campbell stable, which had two runners for the weekend at Melton, one on Friday night and another on Saturday night for a win and a second.
On Friday night, the seven-year-old mare Lucinda Mac chased home La Serena in the Group 2 Vicbred Platinum Trotting Mares Sprint Championship.
It was a 'brilliant' effort from Lucinda Mac, according to Campbell, with the daughter of Danny Bouchea and the mare Lucky Kentucky beaten only by an obvious mare on the rise.
"Greg (Sugars) knew where she was and where the leader was, the best she could do was come second and he drove her and didn't knock her around and did the best he could do on the night," she said.
"(La Serena) is a very nice horse - they (Alex Ashwood and Tayla French) are building a nice team.
"No disappointment running second behind their horse."
Lucinda Mac will back up on Thursday night in the first heat of the Lyn McPherson Memorial Breed For Speed Gold Series, part of a big night of dual-code harness racing and greyhound action at Lord's Raceway in support of this year's Team Teal campaign.
Campbell was over the moon with the performance of Belittled on Saturday, with the one-time Lord's Raceway 1650m track record holder impressing in the final event on the 10-race program.
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"It's a bit of a relief now that it's happened because we always thought he'd win the equivalent to an M0, but he's so fine - he's only pony-sized," she said.
"You have to have him pretty schmick to go right, but on Saturday night all the cards fell into place.
"Greg did an excellent job again for us. He was confident 600m from home he was going to win it.
"I can say it's actually more nerve-racking standing on the fence line than what it is actually driving.
"Standing there I couldn't do much - I was just pacing up and down."
The always competitive gelding's eighth win was a solid reward for both horse and trainer.
Belittled has 10 times finished second and also had to settle for third on another 10 occasions during his 68-start career.
"He's run quite a few of those seconds lately (four in his last seven starts before Saturday) and he hasn't been far away in any of them," Campbell said.
"You just need the stars to align sometimes, which happened on Saturday.
"Having a small field made it easier. If you are not in the first few, they need to have a bit of speed on, whereas in that race they went 1;56, but it was a small enough field that he could still quite easily come from the back and he came home really well.
"He's a good sit-sprinter, but sometimes he doesn't back up, so you try to drive him for the longevity of his racing career and the best thing for him.
"We do have a lot of fun with him."
Despite being about 10m off the frontrunner Art Of Sheng Li on the home turn, Sugars said he had always felt confident of mowing the leaders down.
"I was actually. The horse has been racing in terrific form of late and sometimes he can be tricky," he said.
"He's a sit-sprinter by nature and he's only a little fellow and sometimes small fields work against those sorts of horses because there's a slow tempo on up the front and everything sprints home as quick as you.
"As it was he worked into it quite nicely and he had the right horse to follow and hit the line strongly, so I was very happy with him."
Three of Belittled's previous wins were at Bendigo and two at Maryborough.
Read more: Shortys Mate pips stablemate for Melton win
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