The highly rated Silvano filly Equina cantered to a quarter lengths victory to win the Republic Cup at Borrowdale racecourse on Sunday.

Saddled in by trainer Amy Bronkhorst, the equine athlete had a draw of 10 with Karl Zechner holding the straps in the 1 900m sprint.

The Republic Cup was the feature race at Seven while eight races were carded on the day.

The combination took 1 min 54.44secs to stop the clock and win the $24 000 on stake for the first price while the bay gelding Super Trouper from Gorkhan Terzi’s yard settled for second place.

Jockey Brighton MCnaughton was aboard the South African bred runner as they exited from gate 12. A total of 12 runners took part after Warcraft was scratched.

Pre-race favourite Yer-Maan came third and was 1.25 lens behind Super Trouper. A lot was expected from Yer-Maan and Quinton Riddle after the combination by St John Gray had won the Castle Tankard and the OK Grand Challenge this year and were aiming for hat-trick

The Castle Tankard is the most prestigious horse race in Zimbabwe while the Grand Challenge is the most popular and second biggest horse race with the Republic Cup taking the third slot.