Unless your name was harness racing driver Wayne Hill on Sunday afternoon at the trots, you really may have missed out on a win. Driving five winners from the seven races and add to that a second place, I'd say he would have been quite happy on the road home.
One damper on his day may have been the last past the post position on Jodis Choice, but I think he could probably look past that one.
This particular race had been won by Tossup from the Dominic Tattoli stables.
Tossup has been under the Tattoli banner since November 2016 and in that time has now had twelve wins, all on the Port Pirie track.
Tossup is a beautifully presented five year old bay gelding and as all of the Tattoli horses, looks in good condition and fit. It is obvious that this team put in the time and effort on their horses, and it pays off.
Tossup finished seven meters in front of Ashleigh Dunkley's Kentsford Kenny and Canelliesparkle, one of the Afford owned and trained horses.
The first event of the day had been the McMahon pace and after having horses at Globe Derby Park on Saturday night and winning the last race with Buriton Bailey, Shane Loone took out the first race with Regal Knight, driven by Ken Rogers.
He also had another in the first race, driven by Corey Johnson, but this one did not score as well.
Corey would not have been too perturbed though as he would have still been celebrating his first win on Saturday Night at Globe Derby.
Not too bad for a lad of sixteen and has only been driving for a few months. And what about this titbit – Emerging Art, which Corey had driven had paid a starting price of $51.10, whoohoo! Regal Knight's Mile Rate for this race had been 1.55.9, and that is not too slack at all.
Mind you, he had only just got to the line in first place, Reva, with Wayne Hill on board, had run one of his best races since returning from a spell and had been beaten only by a short half head. Nothing gets much closer than that. The Tooth Fairy looks like her problems have been sorted out, the headcheck has been removed and her visor also is missing and didn't she run like a charm.
Her gate speed takes something to be beaten in her class of horse and she led all the way, not putting a foot wrong. Challenged in the home straight by Marcello and Disclosure, she did not falter and went on to win by almost two metres.
The Tooth Fairy has been waiting to break through and now that her problems are sorted out, hopefully, she may show more success.
She is only a three year old and is by the same sire as Riverina Ava, Princess Pickles and Trapper Two. Mile rate for the race had been 1.59.9.
Although Ryan Hryhorec had three horses nominated for the day, he had been unable to drive any one of them.
Hryhorec had a bit of an accident, hurting his shoulder, and will be out of action for another couple of weeks, however, Wayne Hill was able to steer Springfield Desire to the winning post.
The Waylon Hornhardy stables seen a couple of good wins, the last two events on the programme. Ronzel Grinner, a seven year old gelding, showed how it was done in the Elders Insurance Pace.
In a fast time of 1.56.3, Wayne Hill had driven Ronzel Grinner to perfection and had managed to hold off Barney Fella to take out the event.
Barney Fella had made the charge, using the Sprint Lane, but had not managed to catch the winners. Wayne Brodie's Atomic Blue Chip had run on in third place.
Going back to where I was talking about Ryan Hryhorec being injured, it is great news that Dani Hill is only about five weeks away from being back on the track.
This will give brother Wayne some competition once again and he just loves racing against her.
That sibling rivalry thing I guess – not that they would take it too seriously off the track – but on the track would be another thing!
The Aaron Bain stables had brought three horses to compete, and this was great to see. With Wayne Hill , again, at the helm, Trent From Punchy ran a great race to finish off the race a metre and a half in front of Callmedemaro, a Justin Brewin trained horse.
Idrather Rahma, was another trained by Dominic Tattoli. At Globe Derby on Saturday night, it had been the Victorian team of Emma Stewarts that had taken home three first place-getters, including the win of Pandering in the Final of the $100,000 "Allwood". Pandering is a two year old Courage Under Fire colt and his share of the winning had been a very nice $57,500.
Another Courage Under Fire offspring in the winning circle last week had been Forte Courage. Trained by Ryan Hryhorec, he had taken him over to Mildura for a run. And what a run it had been.
Sitting at the rear of the field in the back straight, the nitro button had been pushed and what a display of strength and speed had been seen.
He had passed the complete field like it was standing still and had gone on to a mighty win. Quite impressive.
It was announced this week that the SA Government will be putting $24 million dollars into the racing, harness racing and greyhound industries, over a four year span.
I have been told that the harness racing industry receives approximately 10 per cent of that amount. Does that seem really fair, as harness racing is a struggling industry also.
I read the reports in The Advertiser and the Sunday Mail and it certainly did appear all about the thoroughbred racing sector.
The Sunday Mail did happen to have a short report from the chairman of the greyhounds but there was no mention of trotting and no interviews with anyone from the harness racing industry. I guess that says it all.
Our next meeting is Saturday night June 23rd., the last meeting for three months. I still can't get my head around it. But until then see you at the Track!
By Sue Penny