TAKE your pick.
Hot Coffey, and lots of it.
Or a rousing viva España – with a bit of Snitzel on the side.
After three days of smashing the competition at the annual Swan Hill Cup Carnival on the King’s Birthday long weekend, our jockeys and trainers have hardly had time to draw breath as they just keep on winning.
On Sunday, local trainer Con Kelly backed up Spanish Snitzel’s dramatic cup weekend win with a rattling victory in the $37,500 Apiam Animal Health Handicap over 1500m, with Nyah West’s Madison Lloyd in the saddle.
Harry Coffey kicked off the day by taking out the $37,500 Smart Loans Bendigo Handicap (1600m) riding the incredibly short-priced odds-on favourite Pendante to the line with almost three lengths to the rest of a field halved by scratchings.
But for Coffey that was just a little icing on the cake, after a win at Tatura on Friday followed by another huge day in town, with a double at Flemington.
Taking him to 84 winners for the season – including 20 metro victories across two states.
“(Pendante) was really running through the line and extending nicely so she enjoyed the mile,” Coffey said.
“Although she’s a little bit keen in the middle stages, today she was good enough to get away with it.
“It is hard not to be in a rhythm on a heavy track and still let go, but she was able to do that.
“She was good through the line and even though it was a pretty steady race, with not a lot of form in it, she actually had a nice turn of foot against that lot on that ground so it’s the right time of year for her to be in.”
But none of that compared to his Flemington double.
In the $80,000 Country Racing Victoria Handicap (1000m) Rain Lord ruled the dash down the long straight, winning by half a length.
However, the highlight was an hour later, when Coffey saddled up longshot Port Guillaume in the $150,000 Murray Cox Handicap over 2540m.
Port Guillaume, trained by the Hayes brothers at Lindsay Park, is French bred and had multiple wins there before arriving in Australia in time for the 2021 Melbourne Cup – Harry Coffey’s first ride in Australia’s greatest race, in which they would finish 21st out of 23.
Saturday was Coffey’s first time back in the saddle since then.
The much-heralded cups hope has been running as many hurdles as flats in the past year – its last start before Saturday was fourth in a Hamilton hurdle.
But Coffey’s inspired ride – described post-race by JD Hayes as a “10 out of 10” – put the six-year-old gelding on track for its biggest success down under.
For those cashing in on Coffey’s scintillating form of late, a single dollar returned you $30.30 for good old Guillaume – even though the jockey lost his whip well before the line and kept urging the horse on hands and heels.
“Yeah, minus the whip, I threw it away, very windy out there, when I went for the twirl, it took off through the air,” Coffey laughed post-race.
“It’s a long straight and I was thinking about all the things people would be saying if one launched and had got me.
“Fortunately enough, he had a good enough break and he was continuing his run through the line so got away with it today.
“He had quickened up well and had been travelling into the race really well also.
“He’s got ability, but he just needs everything to sort of pan out his way because he is a bit of an old thinker, but we got a lovely run and I just said to JD I nearly rode him as well as I did in the Cup – but with a very different finish.
“But to be fair, he’s a pretty special horse and I got to have my first Melbourne Cup ride on him, even though he went terribly, so it was good to get a win on him today.”
At Bendigo on Sunday, with Coffey picking up his fourth win in three days, the spotlight switched to Swan Hill trainers late in the afternoon as Spanish Snitzel was saddled up.
As the field came around the back bend, the Snitzel looked the horse least likely, trapped behind a wall of horses and no room anywhere in front of him.
Until apprentice Lloyd kept tracking the Bendigo specialist wider and wider to give him room to do his stuff – and pick up his fourth win at the track.
Speaking after the win, Kelly said “he was certainly easy to watch, Madison certainly seems to have the key to him”.
“I was a bit worried when he was behind Zooming Zebra there, and wasn’t getting out wide enough, but once he saw daylight it was all over, red rover,” Kelly said.
“Dan Stackhouse rode him here at Bendigo two starts ago and that was the best he had shown in six months of prep, and then he went on and won at Swan Hill after that.
“This week he has been his usual aggressive self and he knows how to push my buttons, and he’s been doing it all week, so I was confident today if he got a good run he’d go well.”
A mud-spattered Lloyd was more than happy to agree.
“He’s a tough little horse and he found, today, in amongst them, that he really doesn’t like it,” Lloyd said.
“So I did my best to get out wide on him and once I got him into clear air he really let down well.
“I was able to get on the back of Jack Hill (Zooming Zebra, which finished second) around the corner and stayed there for as long as I could and then just peeled him out and he did all the rest himself.”
And the Coffey remained red hot on Monday, with the local hoop riding the $2.60 favourite Under and Over to victory in the $27,000 Pipe Pro Direct Drilling Plate over 1100m at the Ballarat synthetic track – the first of the day and his first of four rides.
