Scoring a third win in his last four starts, seven-year-old gelding Kissinger won the Listed Pakenham Cup on Saturday with Damien Oliver aboard.
Evergreen Oliver won his first Pakenham Cup back in 1996 and with Kissinger ($3.70 fav) winning the 2022 edition, his tally of victories in the $300,000 feature moves to four.
Described by Oliver as a progressive stayer, Kissinger handled the Good 3-rated surface to win by 2-lengths over Nobel Heights ($8.50) with Vegas Knight ($21) a half-neck away in third.
“He’s just gone from strength to strength,” Oliver said.
“I noticed him early in this preparation when l was riding against him and I thought he’s a horse I’d like to get on.
“I managed to get on him and we’ve just really clicked – sometimes you just really click with horses and we have.
“He’s a lovely stayer, he’s got a beautiful attitude and he certainly makes your job a bit easier.”
Settling towards the rear in in the early stages of the 2500-metre journey, Oliver kept Kissinger grinding away down the longer Pakenham straight to put the race away about 150 metres from the line.
“I had Milford in front of us and Sound on the outside so I was following a couple of nice horses and he just chimed in at the right time,” Oliver added.
“He’s just progressed really well and he’s a whisker off being four-straight which would have been quite a record so he’s a really nice progressive stayer.”
Scoring strongly at Cranbourne over 2540-metres on November 12, Kissinger was a nose margin between four-straight wins when edged out by Porth Philip at Caulfield a month earlier.
The Pakenham Cup was the last of the feature race meetings for the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival stretching back to Memsie Stakes Day in late August.
