Boston Garden demonstrated his undeniable talent when setting the pace in the heats of the Group 2 Taylor’s Palace Hotel Horsham Cup (485m) on Friday afternoon.

After finishing unplaced in the G1 Australian Cup heats the previous Saturday, Boston Garden, trained by Jeff Britton, ventured to Horsham, where he was drawn in Box 4 in the last of six heats.

Betting on the final qualifier was dominated by track record holder Soda Titan, which started $1.10 from Box 1 in a field of five, but when the long odds-on favourite blew the start, Boston Garden ($7.40) pounced.

Boston Garden (November ’19 High Earner x Phantom Mime), bred and raced by media personality George Farrugia, was off and gone, opening up a huge lead en route to clocking a Best Of Day 26.90sec.

It was Boston Garden’s second win from three visits to Horsham and eighth from 26 overall, with next Friday night’s $47,000 to-the-winner final to be his second appearance in a Group event, having run seventh in the G1 National Derby at Wentworth Park last month.

Jeff Britton supplied four finalists in the 2020 Horsham Cup, won by Tiggerlong Tonk.

Other highlights from Friday’s heats included:

• Andrea Dailly qualified two finalists, Zara’s Ivan and Americano Miss, as she takes aim at back-to-back Horsham Cup titles, following the win of superstar Shima Shine in 2021.
• Jason Thompson will chase a fourth Horsham Cup with Traralgon Cup hero and Bendigo Cup placegetter Typhoon Sammy.
• Lightly-raced Old News qualified for his first Group final at his 14^th start for Brooke Ennis, who won the Horsham Cup with Margins in 2015.

In extremely unfortunate news, the Garry Selkrig-trained Invictus Rising, a brilliant winner of the fourth heat, won’t take part in Friday night’s final after being humanely euthanised following an incident in the catching pen.