Inverell trainers dominated the opening meeting of the new season’s racing at Inverell on Saturday.
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Times Up trained by Dean Smith charged down the outside to win the feature Picnic Race Club Cup starting at $12.
Smith has only recently taken over training of the horse whose previous wins when trained at the Gold Coast were over longer journeys.
Smith had a unique day after making the decision to split his team and keep Times Up at Inverell while taking Spyro Dragon 700kms west for a similar race at the iconic Louth meeting west of Bourke.
Unfortunately the travel or the dirt track weren’t to Spyro Dragon’s liking and he was unplaced. Local trainer Nancy Stewart only had two runners for the day, running second in the feature with the consistent Safety Peg, and winning the Maiden with Lillybeth.
Lillybeth was having only her second race start after running first up at the strong Grafton Cup carnival. The Stewarts Grain Trading Handicap also provided an Inverell quinella with Todd Payne’s Victory Lass ($5 equal favourite) beating Al Foran’s Clever Gent by an impressive 4.1 lengths after leading all the way.
The win was the tenth for Victory Lass and the mare now has had a remarkable 8 wins from 19 starts since coming to Payne’s stable last year.
Readers of Friday’s back page of the Inverell Times should have some spare cash if they followed Alan Foran’s trip to Tamworth with vastly improved mare Bonnis Sare who again won at the TAB meeting and is now being aimed at a $60,000 Highway race in Sydney in the next few weeks.
RESULTS
- Dreamday Marquees Maiden Plate (1400 metres): Splash of Lime, Shadow Destiny, Operatic, Liberty Pearl
- McGregor Gourlay Inverell Picnic Race Club Benchmark 50 Handicap (1400 metres): Time’s Up, Safety Peg, House Wins, Ayda
- Stewart’s Grain Trading Benchmark 48 Handicap (1200 metres): Victory Lass, Clever Gent, Drawn to you, Gold Drama