Port Fairy-born Pat Hyland will be the latest Australian Racing Hall of Fame member from Victoria’s Western District, following Tuesday’s announcement of 2016 inductees.
Hyland joins his old mate, the late, great trainer Jim Moloney, who was inducted last year.
Hyland, a former student at St Patrick’s Primary School in Port Fairy, rode more than 2300 winners including the “big four” of the Australian turf — the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Golden Slipper — before retiring from the saddle in 1991.
He began a successful training career after hanging up his saddle.
An official ceremony for the 2016 inductees will take place in Adelaide on Friday night. The deeds of all Hall of Fame members will be celebrated at metropolitan race meetings across Australia this Saturday.
Remember Rick’s ring-in?
Sunday’s Casterton Cup marks 44 years  since the famous ring-in staged by Rick Renzella.
Renzella rung in the crack sprinter Regal Vista for the bumble-footed Royal School in the Muntham Handicap.
The coup netted Renzella $33,570 as well as a two-year jail sentence.
To put the coup into perspective, prizemoney for the 1200-metre feature that year was $520, with $325 going to the winner.
The Hamilton-trained Apex Star was the favourite for the Muntham following wins at Hamilton and Warrnambool in 1000-metre races. The Jack Barling trained galloper would have been an odds-on chance if not for the heavy flow of money for Royal School.
Punters who backed Royal School on the tote picked up $3.80 for a 50-cent investment but those lucky enough to snare the daily double with Gay Demand in the Casterton Cup got $111.90 for their 50 cents.
An off-the-cuff remark from Royal School’s jockey, Stephen Wood, that he was glad the race was over and that he would get $4000 for his troubles, led to one of Australia’s most sensational racing enquiries.
Beach key to Kapha
Working on the beach was crucial to Crossley-trained galloper Kapha winning his maiden at Donald last Saturday according to veteran trainer Quinton Scott.
Kapha ($17) defeated Lechter and Yarrayne Lass in the 1002-metre maiden.
Scott said the three-year-old had strengthened up following work on the beach.
“The beach work has turned him around,” he said.
“We got balloted out of Mount Gambier last Thursday so we had no other option but to run at Donald. It was a tougher race but he won well.
“I thought he ran all right at Warrnambool (when fourth on March 31) but we’ve been doing a lot of beach work with him and it’s done the trick.”
Scott said Kapha was “still a baby”.
“He’s taken time to develop,” he said. “We’ll just keep him to races over the shorter distances at this stage.”
Scott added that apprentice Melissa Julius had ridden the horse a treat.
The Donald win came at Kapha’s fifth start.
Reel good
Big Reel kept up his good record on the Geelong synthetic track when he beat Crystal Dreamer and Tizso Wicked in a benchmark 64 race last week.
The win was Big Reel’s second from two starts on the synthetic surface. Warrnambool trainer Merv McKenzie will set Big Reel for another race at the track on June 2.
“Big Reel seems to love the synthetic surface,” McKenzie said. “There’s another race for him coming up at Geelong.
“He’s had a lot of injury problems during his career. We’ve given him a long, slow preparation and it seems to have worked.”
From nine starts Big Reel has won three races.
Weather woes for Weir
Heavy rain in Warrnambool last week took a toll on works under way for leading trainer Darren Weir at the racecourse.
Weir is building a new stabling complex to house 40 horses but workers had to down tools following constant rain.
“We were hoping to finish towards the end of May but we’re now looking at June,” said stable spokeman Jarrod McLean.
Court has his day
Camperdown trainer Denis Daffy believes immaturity delayed a maiden win for Day in Court, who finally broke through at Mount Gambier last Thursday — at his 21st start.
“He’s just been a very slow-maturing horse who’s kept on finding trouble in his races,” Daffy said.
“He should have won his maiden before this. He’s been a handful.
“I’m lucky that I’ve got my granddaughter Harriet helping me out. Day In Court is a tough type of horse who needs lots of work.”