AUSTY and Harry Coffey might have fired the opening salvo for local trainers when they took out the opening event on the card at the Swan Hill Races on Tuesday, but it was Nathan Hobson who stole the show with a double.
The Coffey partnership saw the well-backed Miss Cheviots steal the $25,000 bet365 Top Tote Plus Plate over 1200m by the shortest of margins.
But in the fifth Nathan Hobson’s Orienzel and jockey Jarrod Fry fought a ding dong tussle to the finish line against Swan Hill’s Wasabi, trained by Jane Duncan and ridden by the comeback kid Shanae O’Meara, which left the apprentice a half head short of her first win.
Then two races later Hobson and Fry got back together in the $25,000 The Bottle-O Swan Hill handicap over 1600m with The Enzo, which turned on a gutsy performance in the charge down the straight for another win by a short half head – this time against Honourable Mention.
It must have been one of those days as all three Swan Hill wins would not have totalled half a length – but in all three they had their noses in front when it really mattered.
After the Orienzel win in the $25,000 Pooles Accountants over 975m (which took the horse into six figures for career prizemoney at $100,750), Hobson said his five-year-old gelding got the luck that eluded him nine days earlier at Horsham.
He said the previous start had “not been a pretty watch” and he should have won that one as well.
“But that’s racing,” he added with a big grin.
“This win was for my dad, he bought this one and it was good to see him get up. He’s been a very honest and consistent horse for us.
“I was a bit worried dropping back to the 975m today; that they might go a bit quick for him but Jarrod was pretty confident; although you do have to worry about some of the weights they have to carry in these 975m races (Orienzel had 63.5kg) as it can really stop them, so credit to the horse and Jarrod.
“It’s hard because it’s a lot of weight in a BM58 but you try and put them in a 64 and you can’t get a start.”
Fry said compared to Horsham they had drawn well, and he got the horse to step away even better down the inside of the field.
“I wasn’t going to let us be unlucky two starts in a row and yeah, he was just too good in the end,” Fry added.
He said he knew Shanae O’Meara on Wasabi and Gorokan Express (which finished third) were coming but he always felt he had them covered.
“But just when we got there, probably feeling a bit cheeky, he wanted to think the job was done so I put away the stick and rode him hands and heels and he responded to that.”
In the fifth Coffey and Hobson combined for a second and third before taking on the mile with four of the 10 starters locally trained.
As the field turned for home; Fair Go decided to have a real go and tried to steal a march on the rest, but Miss Tenthousand and Hobson’s The Enzo and Okotoks all gave chase.
A move which quickly unravelled as Miss Tenthousand veered off its line and Okotoks, with apprentice Tahlia Hope in the saddle, got badly sandwiched and lost its momentum.
But Fry seized the moment and ricocheted clear to set off after Fair Go and quickly shot to the lead and looked like winning with room to spare before Honourable Mention flashed along the running rail to finish a half head in arrears.
The move to put blinkers on the six-year-old veteran instead of visors also seemed to pay off, with Hobson saying it was a move to help the horse do a bit of thinking – and push his career earnings to $267,235.
“He’s a funny horse and does not like to get his toes dirty whatsoever, so back on a firm track today really suited him,” Hobson added.
“The team suggested we also back him off leading up to the race, so we have just been doing a bit of swimming with him to try and keep him a little bit fresh, and with Jarrod Fry jumping back on him also helped as he knows the horse really well,” he said.
“We’re happy with the way he looks, and we can make excuses for him last start, and hopefully the owners had something on him … (he paid $10.20).”
