YESTERDAY saw a crowd of about 2000 punters frock and suit up to attend the first Melbourne Cup Day races at Wangaratta Turf Club in five years. The bumper crowd was lined up before gates opened at 11am, with racegoers eager to take in the fun and festivities of the local Cup Day races. Racing commenced at 12.12pm, with Ben Brisbourne’s Son Of A Boom ($8.20) first past the post in the $15,000 A1 Tyrepower Wangaratta Maiden Plate (1590m). The locally trained four-year-old gelding was far from the favourite, but started extremely well, keeping pace with the leader for the first 1000m. With 400m to race, Son Of A Boom made the move, pushing ahead on the inside to outlast Miss Aurora ($1.04) and Theria ($4.40) by two lengths. Ledger Racing’s The Eagle ($6.20) continued the strong local performance in race two, running third in the $15,000 Winsec Savings & Loans Maiden Plate (1300m). The Eagle was near the back of the pack heading into the home turn before making a run on the outside down the straight, taking third by a nose behind Queue Jumper ($1.70) and Capital Win ($1.20). The Andrew Dale-trained Super View ($1.40) looked good early in race four, staying with a breakaway group of three six lengths ahead of the back with 1000m to go. Super View enjoyed a strong battle with Frankie Two Angels ($2.40) down the straight but fell away late to Luna Chara ($3.20) to run second by less than a length. In other racing news, Wangaratta had two local-trained horses feature in the $3 million Big Dance at Royal Randwick yesterday. Ben Brisbourne’s Suparazi won $300,000 after running third, while Craig Weeding’s Prince Of Helena came 17th. The Big Dance is a new racing initiative created in 2022 which gives country horses the chance to run in a multi-million dollar event. Full report in Friday’s Chronicle.
