HE might have left it late in the day, but trainer Nathan Hobson’s horses came home with a wet sail – literally – at Swan Hill’s races on Sunday.
After five races with not much to show, Hobson suddenly had a double, a trifecta, a quinella and some serious cash in the bank.
The day started well enough for locals, with Harry Coffey steering red-hot favourite Been Our Angel to victory in the $27,000 Jarrod Arentz Electrical and Solar Plate over 975m for the McEvoy stable.
But from there on it was very tough work for the home side.
Hobson did get a third – in the third.
And it would have been the best each-way bet of the day with his maiden Spaghetti Sauce paying an eye-watering $18.50 just for coming third.
The track quickly deteriorated from a good 4 to a soft 6 as the rain kept falling and the clods started flying as the track cut up – and the hopes of local trainers and jockeys deteriorated with it.
Until Hobson bounced back in the $27,000 Busbiz.net.au Handicap over 1300m.
He didn’t just win it, either.
He also got second, third and a slightly disappointing ninth as Crazy Sheriff stormed down the outside in the last 150m to steal the win from the pace-making stablemates Jackie Moon and Don’t Tell Sheriff, which ran second and third respectively.
Apprentice jockey Makisha Salter, riding on loan with Hobson for three months, timed her charge to the line with perfection to get up.
Forty minutes later the standout red and white of the Hobson horses took control as the field burst from the gates in the $27,000 The Bottle-O Swan Hill Handicap over 975m.
And with experienced jockey Madison Lloyd at the controls on her first day back in the saddle after a prolonged spell off the track, the heavily supported The Wayfarer did not let anyone down, racing away with the victory, closely followed by Rose Hammond on Hobson’s Alesha Lily.
Hobson took a baker’s dozen to the races for two wins and four placings, so not a bad day out by any stretch of the imagination.
It was a success, Hobson said Sunday night, he could not have achieved without the hard work of his team at the stables.
“I have to say a huge thank you to the staff, we had plenty of runners here today and it would have been impossible to do without them,” he said.
With a couple of runners targeting Ararat today and a “truckload” headed for Wagga Wagga on Saturday, it appears there will be not let up for the team or the horses.
“A really good part of today was seeing Madison get a winner on her first day back, and for Makisha to keep doing such a fantastic job for me,” Hobson added.
“With this many acceptances I had just been hoping they would run well.
“They always seem to do pretty well on their home track and are competitive and we got more of that today.”
He did concede most of his runners were genuine 0-58BM types, so there are no big plans in the wind for them.
Instead he will keep targeting races in their range and where they are potential winners.
“We’ll be flat out to New Year’s Eve I reckon, and after that we will all take a pretty well deserved break I reckon,” he said.
