ONCE Alta Equus found the front in Wednesday night's Shannon Springs Pace (1,730 metres) it was always going to take something special to run the favourite down.
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None of his rivals had that special moment in them, as Bernie Hewitt's Alta Christiano gelding smashed the field by 12 metres.
Alta Equus ($1.50, Bernie Hewitt) made it back to back wins in the space of four days when he easily accounted for Lucky Nutter ($9.50, Emma Turnbull) and Schouten Island ($11, Phoebe Betts), who were left to fight it out for the runner-up spot.
Hewitt said it's been encouraging to see his runner develop his racing game well at the start of the season.
"He's in good form now. He's learned how to behave himself a bit and he's starting to put it all together," he said.
"He had a habit of mucking up the start and you always hope they don't go back to those habits but for now everything's going pretty good with him.
"He has terrific gate speed and he's adept at leading or coming off the back of them. If he keeps his head together I think he'll go a fair way."
Alta Equus went out strong in search of the lead from gate four but once he got there Hewitt slammed on the brakes.
He travelled comfortably over identical quarters of 30.3 before he started to dial up the pace.
Schouten Island stayed on the tail of the leader until Alta Equus calmly put on length after length during the home stretch.
Lucky Nutter finished well along the outside to run down Schouten Island but Alta Equus had waved goodbye to the chasers well before the 200m mark.
The winning mile rate was a new career best of 1:56.5.
Alta Equus has now won four of his 10 starts this season.
Hewitt has Alta Equus lined up for next week's Soldier's Saddle heats as he chases the hat-trick of victories.
Victories were spread out across the meeting as a different trainer claimed wins over the eight race program.