The David Aiken-trained horse put a tricky barrier draw behind it to make a mid-race play for the crown.
In the final stretch, Malcolms Rhythm ($5.20) eclipsed the Emma Stewart-trained favourite Like a Wildfire and reigning champion Sicario in a three-way photo-finish for the $35,000 Moama Bowling Club Echuca Pacing Cup over 2560m.
It marks the second time the Avenel-based stable has hoisted the Echuca Pacing Cup in recent years, with their last win coming back in 2015 with Smudge Bromac.
Driven by Aiken’s son Josh, Malcolms Rhythm had been hoping to put several recent runner-up finishes in Cobram, Shepparton and Terang features behind him.
Finally breaking through at Echuca, the win moves the five-year-old from fourth to first on the trots country cups leaderboard with 15 points ahead of Stewart's Fourbigmen on 13.
“We’re really happy,” Josh said.
“We always try and get to Echuca and get horses in it, and we were lucky to win it this time.
“Going into the race we were confident. He’s been really consistent and won two starts ago with Like a Wildfire in that race.
“But our barrier draw, we were inside the back and on an 800m track it can be tricky to navigate, but once the race started, things fell in our favour.
“One of the leaders, Sicario, was taken on by another horse and Like a Wildfire had some work to do.
“We needed a bit of luck and right from the get-go we did.”
“He’s everyone’s favourite horse, so it made the meet pretty special.”
And as the competition for the championship bonuses heat up, Josh said Malcolms Rhythm would continue to tackle the country cup circuit in the near future, with Horsham and Mildura next in their sights.
“We’ll take him to the Horsham Cup, which is a week from now, and then the Mildura carnival which will be an interesting meet,” Josh said.
“You need to run a heat on the Tuesday and qualify for the final on the Saturday, so that’ll be a couple tough runs in the one week.”
Further adding to the jam-packed 11-race card at Echuca, last year’s J A Connelly Crystal Bucket winner, the Brent Lilley-trained Father Christmas, couldn't pull off the dual crowns, finishing in fifth.
Taking home the prize though was another in Lilley’s stable, with Stress Factor showing the goods to claim the crystal ware and main share of the $14,500 prize.
Among a strong group of local representatives on track, it took until race 10 to book a home-grown winner, with Nannella trainer Greg Albert saluting in the 2130m standing start Trotters Handicap with six-year-old mare Bella Lucy.
And in further respectable placings, the Fred McKenner-trained Cobber Mac came second in the 1755m VHRC Echuca Cup Weekend Getaway Pace, while Faye McEwan's five-year-old mare Wanda also finished runner-up in the final race of the night.
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