DESPITE a less than impressive weather forecast, the imminent deluge held out for Shoalhaven City Turf Club to hold another successful race day at Archer Racecourse on Sunday.
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In a coup for the district, between races it was announced the Melbourne Cup tour would be stopping at Jellybean Park in Nowra on Friday, September 4, where the public can have their photo taken with Australian sports most famous trophy.
Seven quality races were run, producing two class records and unearthing some promising future stars.
Jockey Jeff Penza gave the crowd the first highlight of the day, when he produced an early back-to-back double, riding short price favourite Arsonist to victory in the first race before partnering the heavily supported Fastnet Flyer, trained by Nowra regular Paul Murray, to win the Steggles class two handicap over 1400 metres.
Arsonist, trained by David Vandyke out of Warwick Farm, provided the performance of the day, when he took out the Nestle three-year-old maiden plate over 1400 metres in class record time.
Sired by boom sire I Am Invincible, the exciting colt broke through to claim a runaway four-and-a-half length win on an idyllic good four track surface.
The promising three-year-old gave Vandyke the first of two wins for the day.
The trip south proved fruitful for the stable when they teamed up with in-form jockey Scott Pollard, who was able to steer New Zealand import Northwest to victory in the Manildra class one and maiden plate over 1600 metres.
Former Melbourne Cup winning jockey Blake Shinn made the trip down the coast for a singular booking onboard Cwmbran.
Trained by Randwick’s John Sargent, the well bred five-year-old gelding claimed a comfortable one-and-a-half length win in the Simplot benchmark 65 handicap over 1200 metres, again in class record time.
Shoalhaven City Turf Club racecourse manager, David Sharp, said the track could not have been any better on the day.
“It’s been a very long winter for racecourse managers in NSW and I’m sure trainers and their staff feel much the same,” Sharp said.
“We copped plenty of rain at the start of winter, which always tells you you’re going to be in for a tough season.
“We raced three times in four weeks on rain affected tracks, which knocked it around, but we had two months to get it right leading into today and I’m really happy with the outcome.
“We’ve had a bit of luck in that the forecasted showers held off until the meeting was run, but we were due for a change of luck.
“We’ve now got the job ahead of us to get it ready for Monday week.”
