The meeting had been moved from Wodonga because the track there was wet beyond recovery.
ERC general manager Garry Armstrong said it was hectic; everything was looking OK “until it decided to rain here on Friday night”.
“That was something we didn’t need, and the track was rated as a heavy 10 for the first, with the barrier in the true position all day,” Armstrong said.
“And it’s a credit to our team that it raced evenly from first to last and the only horses that found it tough going were, I suspect, the ones who struggle with wet tracks, period,” he added.
“You only have to look at the $23,000 Discount Grocery Warehouse Maiden Plate over 1300m where Paddy Payne’s House Spouse, carrying 59.5kg, absolutely blew them away to win by more than six lengths in its race debut.
“You only win by that much on a good track, which is what Echuca has.”
Clearly the three-year-old gelding must have shown something in his trials because he was sent out as odds-on favourite and those six lengths showed the smart money was spot on.
The only local trainer on the day was Tayne Davies, who horse Millie On Dollars, looked as though it might be in the money in the $23,000 Peards Albury Maiden Plate over 2100m before fading badly in the straight.
Strawberry Topping took out the race and at 30/1 paid a whopping $34.50 and might have had punters thinking they were going to be in for a bath on the wet track.
But for the next eight races, all the winners were at single figure odds (although none came anywhere near House Spouse’s $1.80); another confirmation the Echuca track was the best that would probably have been found in northern Victoria on the day.
Rider Jack Martin certainly got a lift out of the win; he backed up on Delusional in the next – the $23,000 Baxters Concrete Maiden Plate over 1100m – and duly saluted (by half a nose) to open his day with a winning double. His was the only double of the day.
Echuca’s next scheduled meetings are this Saturday, July 3, and then Sunday, July 18.
