A last start dead-heat winner of the Group 2 Couplands Bakeries Mile, Shadows Cast (Per Incanto-Ages Past by Slavic) warmed-up for a crack at the Group 1 Harcourts Thorndon Mile in a fortnight with an easy victory in the 1400m open handicap at Awapuni meeting on Sunday.
Sundays win, the third in a row for the Ron Cunningham owned five-year-old, takes the chestnut geldings record to eight wins and seven minor placings for stake earnings of $225,000.
Another son of Per Incanto, fellow five-year-old Dolcetto (Per Incanto-Our Shiraz by Nediym) also promises to be hard to beat in the Group 1 feature. The Sylvia Kay trained gelding, a last start winner at Awapuni on Boxing Day, has won six of his last seven starts including a Group 3 defeat of Authentic Paddy.
