Can’t rain on our parade | Horse Racing

Alistair Mace | 3rd December 2008

EXCITEMENT was building with locals for the Central Highlands Regional Council race day but unfortunately so was the rainfall.
Pioneer Park received 62mm on the Thursday and Friday leading up to its final meeting for 2008.
The likelihood of the entire meeting being abandoned was looking to be the case; however, after lengthy track inspections the stewards gave the all-clear to proceed.
This highlights how fortunate we are to have a track with such good drainage and many experienced jockeys passed comment on how well the track had held up.
Race one was the Fernlees Maiden Plate and saw the three-year-old Can’t Be Told break through in his 12th career start.
The colt hit the lead rounding the bend and managed to hold off the ever-consistent Blasko with Roku Express three lengths away in third.
The Bogantungan Class 2 Handicap was emphatically taken out by Cyclone George, who impressively surged on the inside of Golden Sails and Crafty Ruler to get his nose in front at the post.
The horses were then loading into the barriers for race three when the immense humidity eventually burst into a torrential downpour.
The rain was so heavy punters could not even see the winning post from the outside running rail and the 12mm resulted in the remaining three races being abandoned.
However, all was not lost with the crowd in attendance enjoying the rest of the day right up until the much-anticipated match race between Apache Cat and Takeover Target in Perth.
Opinions were split but the very vocal crowd had obviously invested in both champion horses as a united cheer went up when they hit the line in tandem.
Takeover Target ended up with half a nostril in front of Apache Cat and made for an exciting end to an enjoyable day.

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