Effortless to the Max

Pacer cost a packet, but now he’s making amends

IMPECCABLY bred twoyear-old pacer Max Delight is a long way from recovering the money his owner Mick Maxfield paid for him as a yearling, but the youngster is gradually repaying the debt.

In Launceston on Sunday night, Max Delight treated his rivals with contempt as he powered his way to an effortless win in the $15,000 Golden Slipper over 1609m.

He scored by 16m from the previously unbeaten Resurgent Storm, which had collected the Sweepstakes and Dandy Patch finals before Sunday night’s assignment.

The Paul Ashwood-trained colt was purchased by Maxfield for $245,000 at the 2017 Australian pacing Gold Yearling sale in Melbourne.

The colt was dispatched to the Darren Hancock stable in NSW where he was prepared for a tilt at the 2YO APG Gold series, in which he finished third in a heat before being unplaced in a repechage that sent him into a consolation final, in which he finished fourth.

Maxfield brought him back to Tasmania for the Golden Slipper and is now expected to either campaign the youngster in Victoria or send him for a spell.

Ashwood is confident Max Delight is better than Majestic Emperor, another pacer Maxfield raced, which won 18 races including the $50,000 Sweepstakes final in Hobart before finishing a gallant fifth to megastar Lombo Pocket Watch in the $285,000 APG final at Albion Park in 2006.