LEGENDARY trainer Gai Waterhouse and former local jockey Nash Rawiller won the Kilmore Cup on Sunday with the hot favourite Joku.

Paying $1.70 on the tote, the five-year-old gelding carried the hopes of local punters from the moment the barriers cracked open, and the result was never in doubt as Joku went straight to the lead and never surrendered it.

Rawiller said the win was momentous because he had spent a lot of time in Kilmore when learning to be a jockey.

“I spent a lot of time in Kilmore as a young bloke and a lot of memories go back to when I was a young apprentice with Lee Hope at Kilmore and his son Shannon,” he said.

Rawiller said a lot of credit went to the horse and also to Waterhouse.

“The horse had only been down here a few weeks, I’m not sure what he’s done, probably just been listening to Gai, but the horse has gone ahead in leaps and bounds, just a pleasure to be on his back, just a tremendous horse.”

Lee Hope had a chance in the $110,000 feature race with five-year-old gelding Vandalo, which ran on strongly for third.

Hope said Joku was simply a class above the rest of the field.

Vandalo will now most likely find a more suitable race for the Hope team.

Overall it was a successful day for Kilmore trainers, with 13 local horses running and over half of which ran into the top three (two winners, five placings).

Hope struck gold with his three-year-old Supercheap, who defied a poor start out of the barrier to edge out Arctic Point on the line in a photo finish.

Supercheap was true to his name when it came to the tote, paying a skinny $1.90.

Kilmore trainer Alicia Macpherson had a dream end to her Cup day, taking out the race named after her stables, The Alicia Macpherson Racing Stables Handicap, with Very Suave.

Another one of her horses Grass Ruler ran third, which payed the healthy odds of seven dollars to run a place.

In the last race, Macpherson’s Homelander came storming home to finish third, again with some healthy odds of five dollars to run a place.

WHITTLESEA had the solitary runner on the nine-race card, with the Peter Morgan-trained Cellini, and ridden by group one winning jockey Nikita Beriman.

Unfortunately, it was not to be for Morgan and Beriman as Cellini could not keep up with his classier rivals.

“She likes to lead, and they went too hard in front, and the horse has been proved that she doesn’t want to run from behind. That was my big problem there, the race just didn’t suit in running,” Morgan said.

Next up for Cellini will be a weaker race, where hopefully Morgan can see his four-year-old mare out in front.

“We’ll just find a weaker race for her somewhere with not much pace in it, where she can lead. Probably back to 1000m, 1200’s probably a bit too far for her.”

Morgan said the Kilmore Cup was great for the locals, but was disappointed that the Cup-winning trainer was not in attendance.

“It’s a big day for Kilmore. It’s probably a bit disappointing that the Kilmore Racing Club didn’t pay Gai Waterhouse to be here, but it’s something they’ve overlooked, but it would have been great to have her here.”

Unfortunately the Cup has gone north to Waterhouse’s Sydney stables, but on Kilmore racing’s biggest day, the locals have certainly stood up to be counted.