Sunday’s Group 3 Carlin & Gazzard Cup over 512 metres had always promised plenty after the running of seven keenly-contested heats at the previous week’s meeting. And the $26,000-to-the-winner final didn’t disappoint.

With a mixture of Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Victorian finalists, it was one of the local hopes in Lochinvar Cahill who led the way early from the Victorian-based Titan Blazer – back for a second crack after failing to reach last year’s final.

But turning into the back straight it was Titan Blazer who took over the running from Lochinvar Cahill and another of the Mount Gambier representatives in Sister Roberta.

From then on Titan Blazer was always going to be the one to beat although the local pair gave it their best shot – Lochinvar Cahill eventually beaten into second place by 1½ lengths with Sister Roberta a further 1¼ lengths back in third spot.

Trained at Avalon by Daniel Gibbons, Titan Blazer carved out a race record time of 29.36 seconds which lowered the record, previously jointly held by Sunset Milo and Departure Gate at 29.42 seconds.

From a local perspective, Lochinvar Cahill delighted his co-owners David Peckham and Kevin Douglas with another terrific performance at Tara Raceway while Sister Roberta, trained by Tracie Price for Matt Trzeciak’s Toot Toot Syndicate, lost no friends with her strong finishing effort.

Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club manager, Mark Dwyer, probably best summed up Sunday’s Mount Gambier Cup meeting: “It was a great day for the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club and for greyhound racing in general.”

He was spot on, too, after long-time cup-goers rated the 43rd running of the cup as one of the best ever while local bookmaker Darren Guthridge reported a significant increase in turnover on last year’s cup meeting.