LOCAL horse Pandemic won the $10,000 Albany Cup meeting last Friday night.

Pandemic is trained by local Peter Hemsley and his brother Phil and was driven by local reinsman Trent Wheeler.

It was Wheeler’s first double as a reinsman and the Hemsleys first Country Cup win with the horse.

Peter Hemsley said Wheeler’s drive was “a gem”.

From his backline draw, Wheeler allowed the six-year-old son of Panorama to settle with the fast early pace and then in a winning move took the horse to his favourite position outside the leader after a lap.

From this position Pandemic showed his customary grit when Armbro of Wagin challenged with a lap to go and the two horses pulled away from the field with the Collie pacer scoring by two metres.

His win dividend of $3 proved good value after his solid second at the track the previous Friday.

Wheeler opened the Friday night meeting with an excellent drive on his father, Brian’s three-year-old filly Honorername to come from well back in the field at the bell for a narrow but convincing win.

Wheeler pulled the filly out wide at the 550-metre mark entering the back straight to make steady progress and hit the front where it counted.

Trackwork watchers got good value with the $9.60 win and $3.20 place dividends.

Wheeler then drove Bridgetown mare Disco Belle to a close fourth in the next event before his winning drive of Pandemic.

The win provided two milestones for the connections.

Their next major target will be the Premier Coal Collie Cup on March 28.

This weekend’s trotting meeting for the Collie Harness Racing Club will start at 1.32pm with the final event at 5.10pm.

The main event will be the Be Active Collie River Valley Cup, a 2400 metre event for C4 to C10 class pacers.

There will be lots of giveaways for children with a bike and lots of other sporting goods to be won.

Two pony trot events will be held with Collie’s Bandit driven by Jack Justins engaged.

Five more draws on the chocolate wheel will be made and the tipping competition has jackpotted to $200.

The Punter’s Club will be making every effort to redeem some of the last meeting’s losses but the local form should be easier to follow now.

Many Collie pacers will be at the meeting with the Ashcroft, Wallrodt, Wheeler and Jackson stables having strong representation.

In addition there will be runners at the Albany meeting on Friday night and at Monday’s public holiday meeting in Pinjarra.