Seven-year-old Irish import Sixties Groove found himself back in the winner’s stall on Wednesday thanks to a brilliant ride from jockey Jason Collett in the Listed $200,000 Grafton Cup (2350m).

Sixties Groove (pictured at Flemington) carried topweight to victory in the 2020 Grafton Cup. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

Despite being charged with 61kg, punters were still willing to back the old boy coming off a last-start second to stablemate Frankely Awesome in the Listed W J McKell Cup at Rosehill.

Last year’s Brisbane Cup winner struggled in his return to the races this prep finishing in the back half of the field in the Scone Cup, but he always looked a danger in Thursday’s Grafton Cup field with a pair of wins to his name over the distance.

The pace was set early on as Satono Rasen and La Pulga rolled forward, while Collett was left with plenty of work to do settling second-last seven lengths off the leaders.

As the pace quickened at the turn, Collett chose to make good use of the wide gate as the pair rolled over the top of the Chris Waller-trained The Lord Mayor to swoop in late at the line.

Sixties Groove was backed into $3.50 before the jump with another of Waller’s runners Carzoff the next best at $4.60 under big race specialist Glen Boss.

The win marked the first Grafton Cup for this season’s NSW Premiership leading trainer Lees, while Sixties Groove also broke a new weight record with no horse having previously won over 58.5kg.

“It was a big effort with the weight he was carrying and it hasn’t been done [in that race] for years,” Lees told the Newcastle Herald.

“It was a great ride. It was just that will to win, to get out in the clear and then charge to the line. I thought we were going to run a nice second or third, but he just put the head down.”

The Lord Mayor did well to stick on for second paying $2.80 a place, while Carzoff made up ground late for third to round out the 2020 Grafton Cup trifecta.

Sixties Groove now heads to the paddock for a well-deserved rest ahead of a potential spring return targeting the Group 3 $200,000 Newcastle Gold Cup (2300m) on September 18 and or Group 1 $750,000 The Metropolitan (2400m) at Royal Randwick on Epsom Day.

Current all-in 2020 The Metropolitan betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au list the Grafton Cup winner at $41 and are available in full here.

2020 Grafton Cup Results

Colour	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	1	SIXTIES GROOVE (IRE)	Kris Lees	Jason Collett		12	61kg		$3.50F
	2	5	THE LORD MAYOR (NZ)	Chris Waller	Lee Magorrian	0.22L	9	56kg		$9
	3	2	CARZOFF (FR)	Chris Waller	Glen Boss	1.16L	14	58kg		$4.60
	4	10	NEMINGAH (NZ)	Edward O’Rourke	Ms Rachel King	1.9L	6	54kg		$31
	5	12	COMMANDER BELL	Brett Partelle	Ms Mikayla Weir (a)	2.04L	2	54kg		$61
	6	7	PRIMITIVO	John Thompson	Jean Van Overmeire (a)	2.29L	3	54kg		$7
	7	6	LA PULGA	Michael Costa	Ben Looker	2.45L	11	54.5kg		$8
	8	3	BIG DUKE (IRE)	Kris Lees	Andrew Gibbons	3.56L	5	57.5kg		$15
	9	13	I’LL MISS YOU	Julie Pratten	Raymond Spokes	5.3L	7	54kg (cd 55kg)		$151
	10	11	CHAMPAGNE VEGA	Bruce Hill	Matthew McGuren	6.86L	8	54kg (cd 55kg)		$31
	11	16	KILMARNOCK	Lea Selby	Shane S Arnold	8.03L	1	54kg		$201
	12	14	WINKLER (NZ)	Ethan Ensby	Kyle Wilson-Taylor (a)	8.42L	4	54kg		$151
	13	9	PARTNERSHIP (NZ)	Ethan Ensby	Grant Buckley	10.52L	13	54kg		$101
	14	15	MISTER MAKER	Catherine Inwood	Jon Grisedale	12.78L	10	54kg		$201
	15	8	SATONO RASEN (JPN)	Chris Waller	Mitchell Bell	15.2L	15	54kg		$8
		4	FRANKELY AWESOME	Kris Lees	Jason Collett		0

*Table Credit: Racing Australia.