IT could have been a Swan Hill celebration, but when it had all been run and won, and the dust settled on the seventh and last race at Ararat on Sunday, only Harry Coffey’s flag was still flying high.
Coffey spearheaded a Swan Hill team including fellow jockey Madison Lloyd, trainer father Austy and trainers Helen Burns and Noel Watson.
In the end, Coffey’s victory with Madalsa in the $27,000 Butch Power Plate over 1600m, the first of the seven races, was as good as it got.
Watson’s Rio De Sombras ran second behind Madalsa – by a good two-and-a-half lengths – and Burns and Lloyd combined for another second three races later with Rafha’s Choice in the $27,000 W.L. Bill Biggin Handicap over 1100m.
After that, Swan Hill race fans might as well have gone home.
Madalsa was making its racing debut for the Ciaron Maher-David Eustace stable but was still sent out red-hot favourite and left punters, trainers and owners delighted, living up to all pre-race expectations and running away with the win.
It was a far cry from Coffey’s double at Werribee on Friday, when Hard Questions ran into Speed Bump in the $27,000 Evergreen Turf Handicap over 1400m.
The race left punters clutching their betting cards and connections with their collective hearts in their mouths when it appeared Coffey had left his lunge for the line one stride too late.
He might have thought he had hit a speed hump in the straight, but the finish camera had a different opinion.
“Both (Speed Bump rider Daniel Stackhouse) and I thought we had won but with a little bit of luck it was me and my horse, and this horse is pretty good,” Coffey said.
“But on Friday he just got a bit tired late, and started to roll in under pressure, so I got the persuader out and gave him some encouragement and we were lucky enough to get the bob of the head shortly after.
“He’s a big horse and is already showing improvement, and he got a good weight for the race and showed trainer Andrew Bobbin and me what he can do.”
In the next and last race on the Werribee card, Coffey was aboard Lord Goldberg, another Bobbin horse, for a much easier outcome.
In the $27,000 Global Turf Handicap over 1600m he left the field more than three lengths adrift as he cantered across the line.
“He backed up well off the previous run at Geelong, where I had thought he might have gone a bit better but he was just a little fresh,” Coffey said.
“But on Friday his manners were a lot better and he was more enjoyable to ride,” he says.
“He was a little bit fresh at his previous start but really benefited from that today and I don’t see him stretching out to 2000m as an issue, and I understand he can jump a bit too, so the connections will be able to have some fun with him.”
Number punters and local supporters who had put $5 each way on Watson’s Rio de Sombras – No.11 – in race one would have received $31.30. No.11 was scratched in the next race but ran second again in race 3, returning $46.50 for any investment. Then No.11 (red-hot favourite) won race 4 and punters would have collected $18.
Out came the saddlecloth in the fifth for another win – this time it was a whopping $172 (knocking over the red-hot favourite). But No.11 was scratched in the last two races of the day, giving a return of $267.80.
Now that’s a day at the races.
