Loose Cannon , who has been struggling repeatedly to figure in races going six furlongs (1,200m) and beyond, finally shook off the monkey when he capsized a tough field to win the Division Two of the third running of the $1.35 million Supreme Ventures Diamond Sprint Trophy over six-and-a-half furlongs (1,300m) in Stakes record time.

The Wayne DaCosta-conditioned Loose Cannon stopped the clock in 1:18.3, after a devastating run to erase the previous mark of 1:18.4 done by Taranis in 2015, the inaugural running of the Restricted Stakes event. Dane Nelson, who rode Loose Cannon to victory last Saturday, was also the rider of Taranis trained by Richard Azan.

DaCosta was not surprised by the fleet-footed three-year-old chestnut colt’s heroics at winning over the unaccustomed longer trip for the first time.

“He [ Loose Cannon] always comes up a bit short when competing in the shorter races, so we decided to stretch him out a bit this time around and see what happens. In his workouts coming into this race, we had given him a seven-furlong gallop and he basically did it pretty easy in 1:29.3.

“And so, we thought that he had a good chance of winning at six-and-a-half furlongs. Loose Cannon has never won this distance before, but it is always good to win a race on Diamond Mile Day,” DaCosta said.

Known for his speed, Loose Cannon was off to a good start from the off, but had to settle into second position and watch Fort Knox dictate the fractions up front.

Still biding his time against the inside rails, Nelson and Loose Cannon waited patiently, cut the turn coming into the lane, and just powered home in deep stretch to win by five and a half lengths under dashing splits of 23.0, 46.3 by 1:11.1 to help cement a four-timer for both his trainer and jockey.

Balazo (Shane Ellis) came on strong to get the second place ahead of Killer Bee (Aaron Chatrie) in third and Ten Carats (Odeen Edwards) in fourth.

“I had no difficulties in the race. I mean, we were able to get a good break and were also able to settle nicely behind the leader for most of the way. When he entered the drive, I asked him to go and he responded well and just blew away rivals. He is a nice horse,” Nelson said.