IT was a night to remember for trainer Andrew Vozlic at Swan Hill on Monday night, with the Mildura based trainer securing three wins from the 12-race card.
Originally slated to be held at the Mildura Harness Racing Club, the event was shifted to Swan Hill – along with Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup meeting – after water damage to the Mildura complex deemed it unsuitable for racing.
While the extra travel may not have been to Vozlic’s liking, the Swan Hill circuit clearly was, as his stable led all others on the evening.
This included the opening event on the card, with the locally owned and bred Our Master Play working home down the outside to beat Sir Vincent and Chynchilla.
It was Our Master Play’s second career win from just six starts for local owner and breeder Joanne O’Bree, with the three-year-old colt showing plenty of promise winning in a mile rate of 1:57.5.
Vozlic, as well as driver Michelle Phillips, soon had their second victory of the night, when Phillips piloted home Half Moon Beach in the fourth race of the night.
Starting from the pole, Half Moon Beach led all the way and, despite a late challenge coming from the Luke Watson trained and driven Stonebridge Star, was able to hold on a claim victory.
Vozlic had to wait until the 10th race on the card to eventually complete his training double, with eight-year-old bay mare Valbarann just managing to hold off a fast-finishing Gotonebettor to win.
The small four horse field quickly became three, with Cocorocks galloping at the start and ruling it out of contention.
With the race down to just three runners, Valbarann rounded up Mustang Max to take the lead mid-race, before engaging in a one-on-one match race with Gotonebettor down the final straight and claiming the win in a photo finish with Ryan Sanderson on board.
It was Sanderson’s second win for the evening, having earlier partnered red-hot favourite Sahara Tiger home in race 8.
Sanderson wasn’t happy with just a double however, taking home the penultimate race of the night aboard Martha Lavinia for trainer Allan MacDonald to join Vozlic with a treble for the night.
Sitting three back along the pegs, Sanderson was able to peel Martha Lavinia off the rails during the last circuit and quickly round the field up on the home turn to score by more than two lengths ahead of Shes All Star and Jittabug.
The other winners for the evening were the Boris Devcic trained and driven Good Word That, who took out victory in the second race of the night, while Holzhauer followed up by winning race 3 for Lachlan Prothero and Samantha Pascoe half an hour later.
The talented Jordan Leedham was able to pilot home Triplets in race 5, while Pa’s Guarantee for John Tormey and Jack Laugher and Modern Ginger for Naomi Kerr and Connor Clarke won the sixth and seventh races respectively.
Finally, Sonnys Amazing (race 9) got the win for trainer Reece Moore, with Scott Garraway (trainer) and Wayne Hill (driver) finishing in style by winning the final race of the night with Jay Miller.
