If you want a job done right, best do it yourself.
There’s a certain can-do attitude that pervades all things picnic racing, and it was in full evidence at Yea on Sunday.
Six-year-old gelding Dehughes has just the one listed owner: a Mr M. Keenan, aka picnics jockey Max.
So when Dehughes runs at the picnics, as he did again in race three at Yea on Sunday, there isn’t much discussion required with trainer Alan Keenan as to who’ll take the ride.
The young master Keenan took charge on the $2.90 favourite and steered him to victory, the third for Dehughes from as many visits to Yea this calendar year.
No word on the sling from the owners on this occasion.
Toby Lake got in on the action too, convincing his weekday boss Shane Fliedner to send Ebony Royal to Yea first up after half a year in the paddock.
She proved too good for them in race two with Lake in the saddle, leaving Lake to wonder if a pay rise would be forthcoming.
The man calling the race would have enjoyed it more than most, with Ben Sporle himself among the owners of Ebony Royal.
Gordon Strang and Dani Walker combined to take out the feature race of the day — the picnic circuit’s greatest staying test — the 3000-metre Reddrops Foodworks Sister Olive Handicap.
Despite the extra distance, the race went down to the final stride, as It Could be You prevailed in a duel with Shelley and Rob Kirkpatrick’s Family Pride.   
Bendigo trainer Brad Cole’s winner in the last, Kinjulator, was undoubtedly the feelgood story of the day, with the trainer only recently returning to his duties after a bout of influenza left him in an induced coma for three weeks in August.
It was a full weekend of action at the picnics, with a meeting at Balnarring on Saturday as well.
Courtney Pace rode herself a double to make it three wins for the weekend, keeping her safely at the top of the picnic jockey premiership table.
The picnics head back to Healesville this Saturday, before the Drouin Cup on Boxing Day.