‘Harley’ as he is affectionately known around the stables, settled last after jumping from the widest barrier and tailed the pack before making a move at the 800 to work up outside the ten horse field.

In what can only be described as gutsy effort, the veteran seven-year-old gelding was forced to cover extra ground when he was pushed wide on the turn.

He wore down the other runners in the straight, before nudging in front of the other runners in the final stages to claim the $30,000 feature event.

It was a dead heat for second between Retort Courteous (NZ), trained by Steve Englebrecht and Magnolia Lane, trained by Marc Conners, both of whom hail from Warwick Farm.

Race favourites Price War and Life of Reilly (NZ) failed to place on a weather affected track, which was allocated a heavy nine rating following the deluge last week. 

Price and his team have trained for well known artist Robert Dickerson and his family at their property, Turpentine Park, for 16 years and on Sunday the enduring partnership again produced a winning formula.

“We bred him at home ourselves in the bush at Turpentine Park,” Price said.

“This old horse, he’s been a great horse for the family.

“It’s always great to train a winner for the Dickerson family.” 

Experienced jockey, Jeff Penza, who has steered Too Hi Tek to victory in two of his seven career wins, rode the horse to perfection.

“I’m really happy with him,” Price said.

“I don’t think he’s a heavy track horse but he’s adaptable to tracks.”

“The genuine run race suited him, he was well weighted today and he was very well ridden.”

The Nowra Cup is a fiercely contested race, each year drawing trainers from the metropolitan area.

Last year the race was won by Warwick Farm trainer Jason Coyle with Genki Moochi in race record time.

This year, however, the cup stayed at home with Price managing to stave off the city invaders.

“I’ve won this race five times now, this horse has run second in it from two attempts, so it was good to see him win it today,” Price said.