HARRY Coffey had two major wins at Bendigo on Wednesday, winning the $400,000 APIAM Bendigo Cup on Wentwood, and the $50,000 BRB Electrical Handicap on Royal Tyke.
The win on Wentwood was well earned, as his trainer, Maddie Raymond, said the horse had behavioural problems which has “held him back so much, and Harry did such a good job.”
Coffey said the Bendigo Cup win left him “buggered”, and that it wasn’t an easy ride.
But the pace set by the other horses is what got Coffey and Wentwood over the finish line.
“We had been following Linda (Meech) on Tooradin, and then when Michael (Poy) on Constantinople got caught wide, he sort of put a bit more pressure on us,” Coffey said.
“But I was lucky that happened – because if it didn’t, Linda might have given her horse a bit of a rest in front and he would have just overdone it.
“And what did we win by? An inch?
“So it’s amazing how the game works and how things just fall into place.”
Coffey said he didn’t think he had won until his friend and fellow jockey Jye McNeil congratulated him.
“I could actually tell when he said ‘well done’ he was happy for me, and I thought he wouldn’t do that to his best mate, to say well done and then beat me in a photo.”
The jockey has considerable personal ties to Bendigo, and so winning the Cup was something special.
“For me, Bendigo is like a second home; I’ve got family here, my fiancée and I lived here for a while,” he said.
“But the travel got a bit tough and we got a bit homesick, so we are back in Swan Hill now, and while I wouldn’t change a thing, Bendigo has been very good to me.”
