SWAN Hill was centre stage last weekend as star jockey Harry Coffey took out Sunday’s Stawell Cup and on Saturday trainer Heath Chalmers landed the Peter Walsh Nationals Handicap on Kerang Cup day.
Coffey’s ride on the Ciaron Maher/David Eustace Namakwa in the $70,000 Stuart McGregor Stawell Cup was a textbook example of why he is known as one of the kings of country cups.
Although he did suggest post-race it was lucky Maher/Eustace weren’t trackside, even though he considered the win “one of my better rides”.
“Dave and Ciaron would probably have been cursing early because they would have liked me to lead and use his action,” Coffey said.
“We went the compete opposite to that but I managed to get out of the rough I found myself in and we got moving into it nicely from the 800m.
“He’s quite a nice horse actually, and ran some good races over distance in town as a three-year-old, but third up today with the fitness the stable gets into horses I would say we could really see him go on with it now.”
And just as the Maher/Eustace stable has to sit down and consider what to do next with their four-year-old gelding, Heath Chalmer’s faces the same problem after Saturday’s success with five-year-old mare Mallee Hammer.
Chalmers is happy to admit the horse, which has two wins from 19 starts, has pretty well reached her capacity.
“I’ve had this one her whole career and I thought she had worked well enough for us to go to the races today and expect a good showing,” Chalmers said.
“She’s such a nice little mare to have around and I reckon we might look for something a little bit easier next time. I haven’t looked yet but give me a couple of weeks and I’ll see what we can find.
“I had a couple of other runners and they’ll be going out to the paddock; and I’ve got a younger one coming through, and five two-year-olds also at the stables getting ready for racing as well as a handful of youngsters to be broken in.”
