Brilliant Nathan Jack drive lands Max Delight Bendigo Pacing Cup success

The evergreen eight-year-old gave champion Avenel-based trainer David Aiken his second victory in the prestigious feature, after notching up the first in 2016 with his champion Lennytheshark.

Third on the line in betting behind Beyond Delight ($2.70) and Serg Blanco ($4.20), Max Delight ($5) was three-wide early before being set alight by Jack at the 2000m.

He was able to find the lead in the straight the first time and never relinquished it, charging home in a blistering 26.3 final quarter to keep a gallant Serg Blanco, driven by Ryan Duffy, at bay for a stirring win.

The official margin was half a neck.

Such was the dominance of the top two, Hurricane Harley finished 6.2m away in third, with a nearly identical margin back to the Julie Douglas-trained Kosimo in fourth.

It was a good effort by Kosimo, who was driven by Ellen Tormey, and was the outsider of the nine-horse field at $71.

Douglas' other horse in the race, Our Vincent Van Gogh ($18), finished ninth after being without cover outside the leader for much of the race and tiring late.

The win capped three straight wins for Max Delight, who was returning to the scene of his biggest career triumph, in the Group 1 Victoria Cup in 2021.

A purple patch for the versatile son of Bettors Delight has included wins in the Bendigo Pacing Cup and Cherry City Cup at Young and the Sokyola Sprint at Melton.

Aiken lauded Jack as the undeniable architect behind Saturday night's win with his bold early race move.

"Nathan half hinted before the race that Serg Blanco usually hands up and he was going to lead, so he might just pop around alongside him as he didn't think there would be much tempo on," he said.

"So, he just pulled the trigger and went to the front.

"It was just a great drive. It was the winning move - definitely the difference between winning and losing.

"If you ask me about instructions, I can't give them to a guy like Nathan. I just have to try and have the horse right and he'll do the rest."

Aiken pinpointed a trip to Wagga Wagga in late October that kick-started the association between gun driver Jack and Max Delight as a 'definite turning point' in his horse's fortunes.

"He'd just been a bit unlucky with draws and things like that and he lacked a lot of confidence," he said.

"So we took him to Wagga just for a normal race. It was a free-for-all, but a pretty normal race and he went really good.

"It was the first time Nathan drove him. It was a bit of a confidence boost for him.

"Since then he has dodged a few of the better ones.

"We went to Young, where there was supposed to be a better horse from Sydney there, but the Inter Dominion was on, which we elected not to go to.

"He's in a good place at the moment. I know it's a cliché, being in the zone, but at the moment it's where he is.

"He didn't win for about a year before we went to Wagga, but he was still earning good money running placings. But he just couldn't crack winning.

"It was very frustrating. I kept saying to the owner, 'I'm very happy with the horse'.

"You get the sectionals out during the week and he's running good times back in the field, running his seconds and thirds and fourths, but not winning.

"But when we won that race in Wagga, that was the turning point."

The win pushed Aiken closer to his goal of realising $1 million in stakes earnings with Max Delight.

His 26 wins and 29 placings from 102 career starts has so far reaped $940,924.

He will have a chance to catapult even closer to the magical milestone in next weekend's $75,000 Shepparton Cup (2690m), with the $100,000 Ballarat Pacing Cup (2710m) a week later also on the radar.

"Hopefully he can win his home track cup at Shepp and from there progress later into the Hunter Cup," Aiken said.

"That (Saturday night's win) should get him into the Hunter Cup.

"Nathan and I won the Shepp Cup last year with Cranbourne, so fingers crossed."

Aiken said the emotion and satisfaction of a second Bendigo Pacing Cup may have topped the first.

"It's always a hard race to win, the Bendigo Cup ... and Ballarat," he said.

"Because Lenny was so dominant, it was kind of expected, so you come and you are sort of relieved to win.

"But with this horse, he is getting on a little bit, but you knew that while he wasn't winning races, he still had it in him.

"This one probably meant more, especially given he wasn't favourite and it took such a great drive to win.

"He had everything going for him tonight - he just deserves it."

Interviewed post-race, Jack gave a firm commitment to partnering Max Delight in the Shepparton Cup, as trainer and driver seek to go back-to-back in the race.

"I won't be getting off him," he said.