IT was judged Shal Exceed would have to more than excel, given the widest draw possible in the 12 horse field of the $27,000 Footts Swan Hill Demolition Group Handicap over 1600m on Saturday.
At one point soon after they jumped the horse was left running down the centre of the track on its own as the field bunched and took off – leaving no gaps for rider Neil Farley to squeeze into a spot.
In the end he tacked onto the rear of the field, where, with 800m to go he was hanging onto 10th – and at the 400m had slipped right to the rear.
And as they straightened for home the Con Kelly trained runner looked gone for all money.
Pushed back to the extreme outside of a wall of horses, at one point there was literally nowhere to go – until Farley was almost scraping paint from the outside running rail and looking at the car park for room to get a run.
But eventually he was left a gap and Farley suddenly saw the winning post and a fairytale finale.
And proceeded to swamp the lot of them, seizing victory by half a length – to pay a whopping $20 despite being a last start winner.
“The horse and I don’t write the prices because I certainly thought he could win,” Kelly said.
“He was in good form, and if you could have scripted a race this is what you would have written instead.
“His recent form included a fourth in the Deni cup and a win last start at Mildura, the conditions were good and he had the best rider on his back.
“At the top of the straight he looked to be boxed in but when Neil got clear the horse really let down.”
Kelly said Shal Exceed will be going to the paddock for a couple of weeks and will be targeting the Mildura Cup carnival in mid-July in a race over the same distance.
But as exciting as Kelly’s win was, the local race of the three-day carnival had to be the $27,000 Swan Hill Stockfeeds Handicap over 1600m.
Where local trainers would finish first, second and third, leaving the heavily backed favourite Oh So Thrilling looking oh, so ordinary, to finish 12th and a mile off the pace.
But at the pointy end of the race Nathan Hobson’s Brassi Road put paid to his own pre-carnival predictions of having a “very quiet one” with a not very strong team.
Before the run home the locals started stacking up behind pacemaker Kiss Me Ned and looking for clean air to kiss the whole field goodbye.
As they straightened down the middle and outside of the now rain-affected track, Brassi Road surged forward and headed for the line.
However, Neil Farley on Austy Coffey’s Koyuga Breeze and Will Price on Helen Burns’ Cortain, were not going to give up without a fight.
Koyuga Breeze quickly caught up with Brassi Road and they hit the line in a photo finish, with Cortain right behind them.
The camera quickly showed Hobson’s horse – an emergency in the race – had hung on for an unexpected victory despite starting prices of $10.
Cortain was barley a length adrift of the pair, giving Swan Hill the treble.
Unfortunately the Swan Hill stables were unable to replicate that dominance in the $27,000 North West Ag Quambatook Cup over 975m – but only just.
The race was taken out by Ben Brisbourne’s Antisocial with Milos Bunjevac in the saddle.
Austy Coffey’s Wareo Road was a long head behind in second, with Nathan Hobson’s The Wayfarer a further half-length back.
