A Night of Hot Racing
Last night saw us back “Up The Bridge” for another 9 races. For the first time in living memory on a Sunday Night in Winter, it wasn’t colder than a polar bears bum. It was quite a mild night but the racing was pretty hot!!
Race 1 was the only maiden on the card and it was Lachie Mill’s time to put his name in the history books. Uprise, Petey, broke through for his first win and gave Lachie his first training win too! Big smiles all round and it was tops to see a good young fella, albeit with questionable fashion sense, notch up a win! Good lad!
Yvonne King struck early in the night getting her first win in race 2 with Allinga Lorraine – a dog named after her Mum. “Shazza” never looked like getting beaten and in the end the odds of $2.60 seemed well overs! Allegra Bliss ran second and her owners were finally able to get to the track and see their little girl run.
Races 3 and 4 were awarded to the Rawlings camp. Neil and Tanya were on duty last night with Ben heading to surgery today for a troublesome ankle. Snakebite Me, who Neil has a big opinion of, continued on his winning way over the 455m trip given him 5 wins on the bounce. Threaten then repeated his win last week, also over the 455m journey, with McLaren Illusion having to settle for second.
The TABCORP Grade 5 final was up next and Power burner was the public elect, but Allinga Chloe didn’t get the memo. Little “Hayley” (26kg compared to Power Burner’s 35kg) jumped straight to the front and from then on was never headed. Power Burner - “Percy” – tried hard but in the end the finish line was too close and Allinga Chloe won in a best of the night of 25:47.
Race 6, the Metro Roller Doors Stake, was over the shorter 395m and Matty Payne, sporting a fresh short back and sides haircut, led Aston Merlin to the boxes. He wasn’t the favourite but ran like he was. Box 11 made all the difference and Merlin was never more than 6 inches from the rail and it was a winning move beating Allinga Tianna by 3 lengths in 22:20 which would be the best of the night for the distance.
Zulu Zulu won the 7th for Michael Stewart, proving that the straight track isn’t just his favourite. The previous straight track record holder used a lot more of the track than Aston merlin – he was probably 8 dogs wide entering the home turn – but straightened up and speared to the finish to win in a new PB of 22:30.
The 8th of the night gave Yvonne (or Yavonne) her third win for the night when Allinga Lily won. “Elsa” was right up on the speed with one of the favourites, Blasting Billy, for the first 250 metres of the race. Elsa kicked on, while Billy died in the bum a bit, and she was able to hold on for a good win with Aston Canon rattling home to grab second.
The last saw Longshot Kel Douglas get Emerley Drummer up. It was Drummers first win on Murray Bridges’ horseshoe track after 10 previous attempts, but he was sent out a fancied runner and delivered the goods and finish off what was a short, but competitive, meeting for the night.
Anyway, that was Murray Bridge for the 16th of August 2020, and that was my story!