Last Saturday at Yea was a day to break a drought or two.
The usual suspects featured, but most of the day’s wins went to the lesser lights of the picnic racing community.
Picnic champion jockey Courtney Pace made an appearance on the Country Racing Show on RSN prior to Saturday’s race day and tipped Kelvin Southey’s My Running Mate as her best of the day.
The gelding duly saluted, claiming the first race on the card by a nose, but would be Pace’s only success for the afternoon, a step down from her Balnarring hat-trick the week before.
In race two, Pakenham trainer Chris Diplock scored his first win of the picnic season as Don’t Forget Tiny scored a maiden win.
It was Diplock’s first win since I Carus claimed an all-the-way win at Manangatang on October 14; he clearly knows how to place them.
It was Maddison Morris’s turn for a breakthrough win in race three as she steered Magnyte to victory for Troy Kilgower.
The 27-year-old, not yet a year into her riding career at the picnics, was a winner for the first time at Hinnomunjie in March and doubled her tally at Yea.
Team Keenan put their combined racing knowledge to good use to take the spoils in race four with Dehughes.
It was a first win of the season for father-son trainer-jockey duo Alan and Max.
The punters among the strong crowd might have gone home disappointed, or at least lighter in the pocket, as a couple of outsiders saluted in the day’s final two races.
They would have gone home wet, to boot, as a flash of rain rolled in late.
Rob and Shelley Kirkpatrick returned to the scene of their 2013 nuptials to claim race five, as Family Pride ($8.50) proved far too strong for the capacity field.
The last of the day went to Benalla-based trainer Darren Stumpo, as Up And Downs ($9) prevailed in a thrilling finish from Julie Crosbie’s fast-finishing Tortured Poet.
The picnic racing circuit heads to Woolamai this Saturday.