The Collie Harness Racing Club was back on Sunday, March 11 for the Joe Suvaljko Memorial.
The meeting opened with the club pick Rolling Commander backing up from his second at the last meeting to lead his rivals a merry dance for trainer Des Stockman and reinsman Kyle Harper for an $8 and $1.70 return for supporters in the TBS Rural & Hardware Pace. Adda Rockinheaven and Lauras Shadow filled the placings.
Joe With The Flow was a heavily supported favourite at $1.90 in the Spry’s Meat Market Pace first up for the brother combination of Donald and Kyle Harper to bring up a double in the bike for the latter. He again led all the way in an incident packed race which effectively saw only four horses competing meaningfully.
Bleu followed his win at Bridgetown with a strong second after sitting in the breeze for the entire journey.
Another leader prevailed in the Dynavyte Products WA though only narrowly as Trent Wheeler had to throw everything bar the kitchen sink at Jay Jays Jet to score by a nose from Showtime Prince and the Silver Fox. The horse was recently purchased by a local Collie Syndicate and was a great return for them as a $3.90 and $1.30 chance.
Collie Retired Miners sponsored the first of the heats for the Cedric Jones Tribute to be run in Bridgetown on Sunday afternoon and Dean Miller consolidated his position at the top of the Ray Aramini Memorial Leading Reinspersons Award when he led all the way with his Dad Daryl’s Punters Club pick Liaurie as a $10.70 and $4.20 shot. He will be hard to beat in the final with a similar run.
The Club Hotel’s second heat saw the consistent standing start mare Skewsy Newsy prove too strong from behind the leader for trainer/driver Phil Duggan to score from Jasper Rox and Liberte. All of these three will be fancied in next week’s final as this was by far the faster heat.
The form runner of the meeting, the Kristian Hawkins trained, John-Paul Chabros driven The Trilogy proved far too strong in the 2700 metre Joe Suvaljko Memorial Pace. He was three wide early before facing the breeze and winning as he liked, in a massive drop in class after running fifth in the Pinjarra Cup the week before. He was great value as a $2.40 winning chance. The pacemaker Brookies Jet filled the quinella position with Batavia Scotter putting some value into the trifecta with an $8.10 third placing.
Tracey Reay and Kyle Harper combined for the pacemaker Real Love to score in the “On The Level” Syndicate Pace when she led all the way to bridge the gap on the Leading Horse and Mare in Flying Phoebe who was unplaced in the event. Real Love was a $3.70 and $1.70 chance. Locally trained Call Me Ernie for Bianca Ashcroft sat behind the leader and ran on into second place for a $3.80 place return.
The DeCampo stable scored in the final event where the $2.70 favourite Sheez Impressive gave another bold front running display to win easily.
The punter for the Punters Club had a stellar day, backing two winners at 8/1 and 10/1, two trifectas and both the early and the late quaddies (which effectively means he picked the card) he had a profit of over $2250 on the day! The share value for Punters Club members has rocketed to $108.
Again neither the Select the Order competition nor the Pick Four was selected so both will jackpot to Sunday week’s March 25 programme, Select The Order to $3500 and Pick 4 to $300.
Yvonne Mann was the this week’s winner of the Kalbarri Beach Resort holiday off the chocolate wheel with Tenneale Ireland, Trish Saunders, Ruby Tanian and Nicole J also picking up prizes. Eight-year-old Soraya Wolfe was thrilled to win a bike as well. Summalee Woods and Jen Walton won meal vouchers to the Vic Hotel as the best dressed ladies at the track. The bike and holiday will be given away again at the next meet.
Last Friday’s final meeting of the Albany Trotting Club was a great success for local reinsman Trent Wheeler who had a win, two seconds and three thirds from seven drives. He started the night in commanding fashion when the Terry Ferguson trained Captured Delight led all the way as a $1.60 favourite.
The horse backed up at Pinjarra on Monday, running second from behind the leader for the same combination as a $1.70 place chance. Placings behind the Jeremy Thornton trained pair Just Barney (3rd) and Simply Sweet (2nd) followed with Barney returning $1.50 and Simply Sweet $3.40.
Matthew Saw engaged him for Chevrons Champion who flew home for second from three back on the pegs as a $3.50 place chance and Zara Whitby came three wide from last for a close second, paying a place dividend of $1.80.
At Pinjarra on Monday David Hunter took his newcomer, 2yo filly Itz All About Magic with Stuart McDonald taking the reins and she came from five back on the pegs for a convincing win at $8.90 the win and $2.60 the place.
Narrogin on Saturday, Bridgetown on Sunday and Pinjarra on Monday are all close meetings for Collie pacers this weekend.
