It was a long time between drinks for the connections of Big Maverick but he repaid them in kind with victory in the Group 1 $500,000 Raffles Cup over 1800m on Sunday.

The Laurie Laxon-trained galloper, who started as the $22 favourite, had not been successful since winning the Group 2 EW Barker Trophy over 1400m last year.

In recording a time of 1 min 47.0 secs, Big Maverick took 0.3 seconds off the previous 1800m record held by Trigger Success.

The race was run at a solid tempo with Super Gold (Alan Ng) leading the way over Any Humour (Vlad Duric) with Cheyenne Dancer camped in third place behind the leader. Jade (Eric Legrix) was following the pack with Waikato enjoying a cosy run on the fence.

Big Maverick breaks through for an overdue win under Saimee Jumaat holding off Cheyenne Dancer (Danny Beasley) and Waikato (John Powell) in the Raffles Cup.

At this stage of the race, Big Maverick and a few of the other big guns – including Desert Links (Barend Vorster) and Given Vision (Michael Cahill) – were back off behind midfield.

As the field made their way to the home turn, Super Gold rolled off the fence. Beasley elected to come to the outside of Super Gold which then continued to run out under pressure up the straight. Powell aboard Waikato was able to shoot up on the fence to assume the lead with 200m to run.

As Cheyenne Dancer got the better of Super Gold he started to roll back toward the inside section of the course but Big Maverick was charging between runners in the straight and with 50m to run joined the leaders before scoring his first Group 1 victory.

The well-tried Given Vision ($31) flashed home late on the inside for fourth half a length away.

“I’ve never doubted he would finally win a Group 1 race one day. The Weight-For-Age conditions also suited him today,” said Laxon who was at his third Raffles Cup having won the 1800m event with Tapildo (2001) and Big Easy (2005).

“He’s always been thereabouts and it was just a matter of getting the right breaks, and he got them today.

“The horse was in top condition and Saimee rode him a treat. He’s always had a good turn of foot and he sprinted home very well.

“Waikato ran very well too to finish third. I’ve nominated him for the Hong Kong Mile in December, which will be at a different tempo, which should suit him.

“I bought Big Maverick as a yearling after he was bred by my two very good friends Peter and Philip Vela of Pencarrow Stud.

“And Big Maverick’s win is a perfect present for Peter who is celebrating his birthday today.

“He’s all set for the Gold Cup now. The distance (2200m) is not a concern but the handicap will be an issue.

“I will also nominate Ace Amigo, Waipapa and Streep for the Gold Cup. It’ll be a great race.”

The 62 year-old Laxon, who has previously captured the time-honoured Gold Cup twice with Raul in 2004 and Recast in 2007, said he still had a number of good years left in him as a trainer and felt spritely after seeing 81 year-old Bart Cummings win his seventh Caulfield Cup on Saturday.

“After watching the Caulfield races yesterday, I might hang around for another 20 years,” quipped Laxon.

One jockey who would surely love to see Laxon for a long time to come is Saimee, who produced a gem of a ride to steer Big Maverick to victory, leading the bay gelding to a rapturous welcome by the Champagne Stable.

“He was always travelling nicely on the bit in midfield,” said Saimee who won the Raffles Cup last year with Chevron. “When we turned for home, I went for a ground-saving ride and he picked up very nicely to go straight as an arrow.

“It’s been a bit frustrating with him after all these placings in the big races, but he fully deserves a Group 1 victory.

“It shows he works very hard. When I gave it to him in the home straight, he just laid it down like the good horse he is.

“The Gold Cup is next now. I have no doubt he can stay as he’s run second to Jolie’s Shinju over 2000m in the Derby.”

Cheyenne Dancer’s trainer Michael Freedman was ruing his bad luck in Group 1 races by again running second to Laxon.

“I’m tired of running second in these races,” said Freedman. “He hasn’t had the best of luck again.

“In hindsight Danny said he would probably have been better off staying to the inside instead of getting run off the track by Super Gold.