Albury five-year-old Swagger surprised most punters when he won last Saturday’s TAB Highway Class 3 Handicap (1400m) at Randwick, but not trainer Mitch Beer.
Beer pointed out in a pre-race interview that Swagger had finished strongly from well back for second, beaten a half-length, in a 1500-metre benchmark 58 at Albury at his previous start.
That was the five-year-old’s second start after a freshen-up and he carried 61 kilos. Last Saturday he dropped seven kilos and was back at 1400 metres, his pet trip.
Ridden by Jordan Mallyon, Swagger ($21) held off the late charge of More Sundays, who’d come from well back in the field, to score by a short head.
Don’tforgetmonica, who’d come in for good each-way support, was a further length and a quarter away in third place.
Mallyon had settled his mount just off the pace in fifth spot before issuing his challenge approaching the 100-metre mark.
Later, Beer revealed that getting the horse to the track had proved almost as big a challenge as winning the race.
 “We got an email on Thursday that any staff that had been in Melbourne recently had to go home and be tested (for COVID), which was a few of them.
“Even though we hadn’t been to any of the hotspots Racing NSW understandably just wanted us double-checked.
“So Thursday night was just chaotic trying to organise things.
“Thankfully my sister and my apprentice cancelled their plans and took the horses up on Friday. William Inglis found a couple of boxes for me at their complex in the midnight hours, which was bloody terrific.”
Saturday’s success gave Beer his third TAB Highway and extended the recent run of success that has seen the stable rack up six wins from 12 starters.
Follow that Queen
Expat South African jockey Keagan Latham is riding in top form and kept up the good work with a treble at last Friday’s Goulburn meeting.
One of his winners was the two-year-old filly My Snow Queen, who was impressive in winning the open-age fillies-and-mares maiden (1300m) by 3¼ lengths.
It was the John Sargent-trained filly’s third start so we can expect further improvement.
Later in the program, Sargent brought up a winning double when Toostar, ridden by James Innes junior, took out the 1400-metre benchmark 58 by a similar margin.
On the same day at Casino, the 1400-metre Beef Week Cup saw $2.50 favourite, Potro Duro, trained by Toby and Trent Edmonds and ridden by Zac Lloyd, score a narrow win over At Witz End with Pleased a close-up third.
Sunday’s 1600-metre Gunnedah Cup saw the Cody Morgan-trained Bajan Gold ($11), ridden by apprentice Dylan Gibbons, score a narrow win over Mandalong Tapit with Redemption Road third.
Marc backs Mikayla
Country jockey Mikayla Weir will ride in her first Group 1 on Saturday when she partners Rebel Rama in the 2200-metre Queensland Oaks. Weir rode the filly to a win at Randwick at her last start and trainer Marc Connors is happy to stick with her.
“We’re going to stick with Mikayla. She did nothing wrong the other day and I think she deserves to have the ride,” he said.
Weir is enjoying a superb season, having ridden 69 winners to the end of May.
Chipping in
Racing’s community spirit was highlighted again last Thursday when representatives of the Murrumbidgee Turf Club presented a cheque for $7225.75 to BlazeAid, assisting communities affected by bushfires. The money was raised at a charity luncheon conducted by the Wagga-based club.
“The MTC is proud to be able to raise money for such a worthy cause that will be used in the local community,” said club CEO Steven Keene.
“This also serves as a timely reminder that there is still work to be done for those local communities to fully recover from the devastating bushfires.”
Onya, Mate
Racing Mates staged another successful BBQ Get-Together at the Gunnedah Showcase meeting last Sunday.
That bash followed previous successful events at Wellington and Tamworth.
“Our barbecue gatherings are all about bringing the racing community together for a chat,” said Racing Mates ambassador and former leading trainer Pat Webster.
Brown back in town
At the Wagga Wagga meeting today (Friday), the main race will be the $27,000 Lamont Classic (1300 metres) for two-year-olds, with the main supporting race will be a 2000-metre heat of the Wagga Stayers Series.
Sunday’s main race at Muswellbrook will be the 1280-metre Aberdeen Cup, while on Monday at Taree the 1600-metre Wingham Cup takes centre stage.
Special guest of the Manning Valley Race Club at that Wingham Cup meeting will be former champion jockey Corey Brown, who announced his retirement last year as a result of injuries suffered in a race fall in Queensland in 2019.
Brown, who was born in Taree, rode 2466 winners including 49 Group 1s in an illustrious career, highlighted by Melbourne Cup wins on Shocking (2009) and Rekindling (2017).
Brown will be attending the Wingham Cup Calcutta at the Wingham Services Club on Sunday evening before presenting the cup to the winning owners on Monday.
“Corey is very popular here and no doubt there’ll be selfie requests galore,” said Manning Valley chief executive Helen Sinclair.