THERE’S no place like home.
Just ask Swan Hill trainers, jockeys and owners.
There were doubles, trifectas and quinellas, there were maidens broken, and back-to-back starts won, and there were odds-on and incredibly long-shot starters getting up, plus father and son winners.
Whew, by the time the racing world had finally taken a breath after the eight-race card was run and done, locals had taken out six of them, one way or another.
Race 1 was a bust, it started with Nathan Hobson and Madison Lloyd in race 2, race 3 got away from a big contingent of locals left adrift, and then, like a steamroller, everything got flattened right up to the lucky last when Heath Chalmers saw The Hay Flyer rock punters with a $43.10 win.
Joining Chalmers in the winners’ circle were Hobson with a double (and a two thirds) and Austy Coffey – also with a double, two seconds and a third.
In race 2, Hobson and Coffey completed a trifecta, Hobson did it again in the seventh with first and third, and Swan Hill’s Helen Burns, in between, for another local trifecta. Coffey got his second trifecta in the fifth bracketing Outpour, trained by Swan Hill’s Con Kelly.
Harry Coffey picked up his own double – one for dad and one for the McEvoy stables. Nyah West’s Lloyd got two of her own, both for her former master Hobson.
It was a who’s-who of local racing and there hasn’t been a day like it for a while – and augurs well heading towards the Swan Hill Cup Carnival, starting on June 7.
When Alesha Lily crossed the line in the $27,000 Jarrod Arrentz Electrical Maiden Plate over 975m, even rider Madison Lloyd was surprised to see a Puissance de Lune winning over such a short distance.
“Finally she breaks through for a win, and you don’t see many Puissance de Lunes running over 975m do you?” Lloyd said.
“She’s always very quick out of the gate, she’s actually that fast she had a little slip today, but the starts make a big difference for her.
“Hopefully she can go on now, she is an honest little mare and is a one-dimensional 1000m sprinter but those 975m runs are ideal for her.”
Hobson agreed the mare “probably deserved that”.
He also agrees with Lloyd that flying out of the gates at the start probably won her the race.
“At the end, the second horse was coming pretty hard but Maddie had timed it well and it was a good win.
“Last Apple (which finished third) works a lot better at home than she does at the track so today was a good run as well.”
In the $27,000 Footts Swan Hill Demolition Group Maiden Plate over 1600m, Harry Coffey saddled the odds-on favourite Furlanetto for the McEvoy stable – and didn’t let them, or the punters, down.
Weaving through the field for a rush to the line, running away to win by almost three lengths, Coffey said “she finished off pleasingly although I don’t know I would agree she settled that great”.
“She was always a tad keen but the tempo was that slow it really brought her turn of foot into it – and she does have a really sharp turn of foot,” Coffey said.
“Once I got into the race doing no work, I knew I would be hard to beat.”
“She has been a bit wayward and lost, but Johnny Allen rode her last time and told me she had coped much better, and was strong through the line.
“Even though there was no speed in the race, the McEvoys wanted me to keep to the same formula and they were right, because previously she has been a front runner but with nothing at the end.”
The fifth of the day was the $27,000 In Memory of Peter Coady Handicap over 1600m and it was another Swan Hill trifecta, with Austy Coffey’s Koyuga Breeze holding off Con Kelly’s Outpour and his own Jefferson.
But for Coffey it was all about the winner.
“Not many horses do this, win back-to-back at home, but this one has – and he’s pretty tough,” the delighted trainer said.
“He’s only a three-year-old gelding, and he’s taken a bit to get going, but he may be a better horse than I give him credit for.
“He will definitely be here for the cup carnival and Ryan (winning jockey Ryan Houston) and Harry have to decide who will ride him.
“These horses are hard to find and it’s good to win this race.”
The next saw the old firm of Coffey & Son unite, but there was some discussion about who had done the most to win the $27,000 Pooles Accountants Handicap over 2400m.
Although it should be noted the racing.com commentary team awarded Coffey’s win on El Campeon ride of the day.
“Dad says he and the team had done a great job with the horse but he did throw in he thought my ride wasn’t too bad,” he laughs.
“But I think it was one of my better rides and it was good to get the win.
“So yes, the team really is doing a good job and we had a lot of good runners – and at home we’ve now got a good staff although we are not running in the same numbers as we used to but it’s really good to see them turned out so well.
“It has been a successful day and while some of these horses don’t have the greatest ability, you have got to make do with what you have got.
“They have certainly run well today, especially with the track, which is really great.”
When pressed, Coffey senior said “it definitely was well handled by Harry, you couldn’t say much else”.
“I was a bit worried about the horse, he had raced dangerously a couple of times and it was a bit of a battle,” he said.
“I never liked the horse but we have worked him a bit harder and got him to settle down a lot better.”
In the seventh it was a Hobson-led local trifecta, with his It’s Maui’s Gold getting the cash in the $27,000 Busbiz.net.au Handicap over 975m, ahead of the Helen Burns trained First Division and his The Wayfarer in third.
“It was great to see, he did really well,” Hobson said.
“You always have to wonder when they come out of maiden class, but he’s always been a pretty honest horses.
“It was a good win, but he has been a really hard horse to work with, he’s got no manners, so a big thanks to Robert Beattie, who has done a lot of work educating him, and he hasn’t been the easiest to train.
“We would have been lost without Robert’s involvement; he has done a lot of work with him.”
Jockey Madison Lloyd described Maui, who shied at signs on the finish line, as “a very nice horse, but obviously very immature”
“Who gets scared by signage at their home track?” Lloyd asked.
“He’s got a lot to be improved and I can’t wait to see what he does when he matures.”
Out of the blue Heath Chalmers saw his very long – 40/1 long – shot The Hay Flyer rack up her first win in more than a year.
And it was only her second start for Chalmers, who took over training the five-year-old mare in February.
“She’s a nice mare and when we got her, she had not been putting in during her races,” Chalmers said.
“Tom Campbell, her owner, rang to see if I would take her on.
“And we have got a bit of work into her after she was floundering in the sprint race in her last start – and the 1300m today suited much better.
“We are working about 13 two-year-olds at the moment so we are planning to be at the races a bit more in the near future, but for now I am hoping to see The Hay Flyer at Mildura in a couple of weeks.”
