GOOGLE Maps says it is 211.7km from Echuca racecourse to the hallowed straight at Flemington, but on Melbourne Cup day, a winner is a winner regardless of which track you are going around.
Swan Hill’s Helen Burns and Nathan Hobson weren’t at Flemington, but they were winners at Echuca.
And they were both torn on where to be.
Burns also had three runners at Mildura’s non-TAB meeting and went downstream there.
Hobson also had horses at both meetings but chose to go upstream to Echuca.
Burns kicked off her cup day meeting with a spectacular upset in the first race at Echuca, and if you ever wondered why jockeys are so important, you only had to watch Irish jockey Cillin Leonard in action on her horse Cortain to see how they earn their pay.
Shuffled to the back of the field early in the Bourke Builders Handicap over 1600m, that’s where Leonard and Cortain would spend most of the race.
Even when they were sweeping around the final bend, Cortain was the horse most likely to finish stone cold last.
But Leonard kept the four-year-old gelding coming through the ruck, ricocheting their way through the field and surviving some serious buffeting as they straightened up before bulldozing to the lead and stealing victory by a very short half head.
Which we could call a nose for the sake of accuracy – and that nose was pretty important to some punters as Cortain paid $16 for the win.
“I didn’t get to see that one and it was Cillin’s first ride for me,” Burns said.
“He was only able to ride for me as Cortain was carrying 70kg – he is tall and does a lot of jumps riding.
“A couple of races later Supido’s Littleone had a problem at the barrier and lost her tongue tie, and I’m not sure they replaced it correctly and she did not get away well and had nothing left at the finish.
“In Mildura my maiden I’m Batman ran a third, Superior Force had no luck getting caught behind a fallen horse and rider, and old Sanctimonious plugged on well for a second.”
In Echuca, it was Hobson’s turn to shine in the third of the day, the $27,000 Echuca Toyota Maiden Plate over 1200m, with the six-year-old mare Trustthesheriff getting a win at her fifth start.
Leaping out of the machine from gate 10, the horse quickly worked her way across the settling field to join Reproduced and almost straight away claimed the lead.
Sticking to the running rail down the back straight, Logan McNeil at the controls was showing plenty of confidence as he bowled along in front.
As they straightened, he did not hesitate to go for home and while the rest of the field tried to work out who was challenging, she was gone.
And had timed it perfectly.
Trustthesheriff might have been slowing at the finish but still had almost a length on the field when they hit the line.
And clearly Hobson and McNeil must have been the only ones who thought they had a chance – the horse paid a whopping $52.50.
“She was a six-year-old maiden, she’s homebred but has always been a handful and had been forced to have a year off early on after getting hurt in a barrier accident,” Hobson said. “She always goes in riderless because she is a handful.
“But she has been running pretty well and I thought she was really over the odds at Echuca to end up paying that much.
“She has been running well, just without winning, but Logan did a great job on her. At home Connie and the rest of the team have put a lot of work into getting her race ready so it’s a real credit to them as well.”
At Mildura, Hobson went one better than Burns, when his five-year-old gelding Frowned got up in the $15,000 River End Holiday Park Handicap over 1200m with apprentice Makisha Salter in the saddle.
And it got even better, he didn’t just come home with a win, he also got a jockey in the bargain.
The Mornington-based Salter will be riding for him on loan for the next three months and moves to Swan Hill this week.
“That’s a real bonus, she is a keen rider and it will be a real asset to have someone in the stable to help with all the trackwork and preparation,” Hobson said.
