The old Swan Hill firm of Hobson, Lloyd and Co was back together at Friday’s first day of the Mildura Cup Carnival – and just like the old days they immediately struck pay dirt.
Upper East Side is another of Hobson’s click and collect horses; which had only had three starts for him before going out at 12/1 in the $35,000 Trentham Golden Goblet over 1000m.
The four-year-old gelding picked up thirds at Swan Hill and Bendigo before a middling performance back at Bendigo 11 days later on July 1.
But on Friday Upper East Side got a beautiful jump and just a few strides out of the barrier was right up on the heels of speedy bolter Longduan until Lloyd eased him back along the running rail; where it seemed every other jockey forgot he was there.
Yet even as they came off the bend to head for home, Lloyd still had Upper East Side bowling along in fourth and fifth – and with plenty of clean air in every direction.
It wasn’t until Lloyd looked to move off the rail and got forward that she hit a snag as Zoutons, the favourite being ridden by Swan Hill’s harry Coffey, shifted off his line and forced Upper East Side to break stride and need to get going a second time.
Then it shifted in the other direction and Lloyd and charge were in the clear again and it was put down the glasses.
As she surged to the lead Zoutons and second favourite Pravro only seemed to have eyes for each other until they looked up and realised if they didn’t do something drastic; they were only battling for the minor placings.
They did up the rating but Lloyd, who moved to Ballarat a month ago to boost her career after wiping out her country claim, had it all timed to perfection and the chasers had left it too late – about a head too late.
Post race Hobson described Upper East Side as “a nice horse”.
“And he is; and he’s also another one we bought online and he came to use in good order,” the trainer said.
“His first two runs for us were terrific but then the last start at Bendigo was a bit disappointing, the track was a bit wet and shifting and he might not have appreciated it,” he said.
“But he was back on here today; and although it was also a bit soft it was a nice surface and it was a credit to Maddy, she has been riding well lately and it’s a little while since we had a winner together. “And it’s good to get a winner here as well as the one we got in town last week.”
Lloyd returned to the mounting yard with the now trademark huge grin and happy face; delighted to have landed a winner for her master.
“Harry (Coffey, on Zoutons) knew I had plenty of horse under me and he did the right thing just keeping on my line; so I just had to find a way to get him out and get going,” Lloyd explained.
“He’s quite a lovely type of horse and he has shown us a fair bit of ability,” she said.
“But he is also quite a shy horse but fortunately the others didn’t want to stay on the rail today and just left him there and he was really happy and all I had to do from there was just get him to let down a bit and he did the rest really well.”
Upper East Side paid $13.50 – consistent with Hobson’s knack of landing big payouts on race days – while Zoutons hung on for second; with Pravro a lip away third.
