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Diamond To Pegasus and Shamus dead-heated in the Camerena Sprint at Canberra this afternoon in a thrilling head-bobbing finish.

After five minutes of deliberation following the nail-biting finish, the first feature on a bumper program at Thoroughbred Park, judges couldn’t split the two gallopers and declared a dead heat.

Tony Sergi’s Diamond To Pegasus passed the Joseph Pride-trained Shamus 100m from home, but the Sydney galloper kicked back on the inside in a bobbing finish.

Connections of both gallopers protested the judge’s call, reached after five minutes of post-race deliberation over the photo finish, but the decision stood.

Both trainers thought they’d won the race.

It was the second dead heat of the weekend in Australia, following the Blamey Stakes (1600m) duel between Puissance De Lune and Budriguez at Flemington on Saturday.

Given a new lease of life since joining the Joe Pride stable, Shamus has been racing in fantastic form having scored impressively at Gosford when resuming before a game effort to finish second at Canterbury last start.

“I’ve really been happy with this horse, he’s been making really good progress, he’s had three starts for two wins and a second placing,” Pride said.

“I really think he’s going as well as he ever has.

“I like him a lot, we’re just trying to fine tune him and try and work out the right way to ride him.

Ridden off the speed for the first time, Diamond To Pegasus showed a great turn of foot to flash home down the outside in what was a career best performance.

“I was really confident, the only problem was the barrier it really had me back pedalling because we had never ridden him like that before,” Sergi said.

“Tongue tie on him for the first time obviously helped and I was thrilled with his performance.”