Win for Puls, Preusker
The Casterton Cup has found a new home in the Wimmera as Horsham pair Christine Puls and Paul Preusker combined to take out Sunday’s feature event with lightly raced four-year-old, Brawl.
The gelded son of Atomic was allowed to stride freely by Puls, coasting three-wide without cover for most of the 2000-metre event before finding the back of race favourite, Lunatic Fringe, approaching the home bend.
The Preusker-trained galloper was always travelling better than his more-fancied rival and took the lead at the 100-metre mark, scoring a strong win.
It was Puls’ second win in the race, claiming the 2018 edition with Terry and Karina O’sullivan-trained Patch Adams, and the Horsham hoop was confident a long way from home on Sunday.
“I was giggling going down the back. Paul and I had a plan and we pulled it off. When you’re stuck three-wide it’s not always the best, but he was in a lovely rhythm and going beautifully. We got a great cart in, and the horse showed a bit of fight,” Puls said. She said she was thrilled for all connections. “It’s just fantastic. A lot of hard work goes in to win a race, so to get a result for connections was great. It might seem like just another race to some, but to the owners it means a great deal,” she said.
Stable-boss Preusker was complimentary of his winning jockey. “It was a good win. He had to do it tough but you’ve got to let him flow. He’s a rhythm horse, you need to ride them in clear air on the smaller tracks, which Christine did,” he said.
The victory brought up win number three from 11 starts for Brawl, who had put in two sub-par runs following a promising first-up effort at Mount Gambier on April 1.
The Preusker camp has now chalked up three winners and seven place-getters from its last 20 starts, and it feels like the wheel is beginning to turn back in favour of the Mckenzie Creek horseman after a quiet start to 2022.
It’s a double-header for Wimmera racing clubs this week with Stawell hosting a meeting tomorrow and Warracknabeal enjoying a return to racing on Saturday.