Former Mount Gambier jockey Jacob Opperman piloted Farooq to victory in the Coonawarra Vignerons Cup on Friday at the Penola racecourse.
Before a large gathering of punters, Opperman took Farooq to the lead about 500m from the winning post and held off a strong challenge from race favourite Imposing Suspect to win by a length.
His success in the saddle delighted trainer Simon Ryan and the Naracoorte connections.
Farooq covered the 2000m distance in two minutes and 10 seconds.
It went to the barrier in the feature race paying $6 on the tote.
The nine-year-old bay gelding was having its 59th start and achieved its 12th win.
Friday’s $14,900 purse took the career earnings to $436,000.
Meanwhile, veteran local trainer Michael O’Leary was unable to add to his record haul of Coonawarra Vignerons Cups.
The race has been run on 43 occasions with O’Leary’s horses saluting the judge 13 times.
He entered Four Outlaws in the 2025 event and it finished seventh in a field of nine.
O’Leary has a stake in Four Outlaws along with three others.
The annual race day is spearheaded by the Coonawarra Vignerons Association in cooperation with the Penola Racing Club.
With a deserved reputation for a wonderful social experience, the Coonawarra Vignerons Cup attracts patrons from the capital cities and high-profile guests such as local politicians MPs Nick McBride and Tony Pasin.
Back in January, 2008 current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was a newly-minted Regional Development and Transport and Infrastructure Minister in the first ministry of Labor PM Kevin Rudd.
The Transport minister in the State Labor Government at the time was Pat Conlon and they both attended the annual Coonawarra Vignerons Cup.
At the time, Wattle Range Council was looking for Federal and State funds to build the bypass and they used a borrowed helicopter to fly along the proposed route of the bypass.