KERANG’S Jye McNeil flew the Kerang flag at the annual Swan Hill Cup carnival when he rode heavily backed favourite Wuddzz to victory in the $50,000 Pooles Accountants Handicap over 2400m on Sunday.
Not only was the five-year-old NZ gelding heavily supported, he had to win ploughing through a pretty heavy and chopped-up track after 20 races in three days.
In the lead-up to the weekend, almost two inches of rain fell.
On day one, the track was declared a heavy 10, although no rain fell after that and some steady wind helped dry it off.
McNeil, who rode a winner at Sandown on Saturday, headed north straight after with one eye on this win and one on the $175,000 bet365 Swan Hill Cup.
He successfully completed part one of his hit-and-run visit but, like every other horse, had no answer for Not Usual Glorious in the big race.
McNeil said the Swan Hill track was “pretty close to home” and his family had been at each day of the carnival.
His family had always been a great supporter of the carnival, and he had “been coming here since I was a kid”.
“So it’s always great to get back here and have a few rides,” McNeil said.
“This was my first ride on Wuddzz for a while, but everything fell into place from the barrier.
“And the drop in weight put us in a really good position today, and he’s in good form, although he never really travelled throughout the race.
“But from the 600m he built really nicely, and once down the outside he was too good.”
He was also too good for McNeil’s good mate Harry Coffey, who finished third behind him.
McNeil said the track was showing the obvious wear and tear of three days of racing and the rainy conditions earlier in the week, describing it as “tired”, but added that was to be expected.
“It’s just about trying to find the best part of the track and we managed to do that just then.”
Trainer Henry Dwyer, speaking after the three-length win, ended a pretty lean carnival for his stable, admitting he had told his team if Wuddzz couldn’t get up, they were going home early.
“We’d had enough. But luckily he did salute, and the weight differential was great (second placegetter Mystery Island carried 5kg more) as he’s not a big horse and the 55kg was a luxury for him,” Dwyer said.
“And being able to get Jye McNeil, who can ride that weight, to Swan Hill – well that’s a luxury too.”
