About 2500 people flocked to the course, which Echuca Racing Club track manager Jarratt Farley said was about what was expected from the day.
“It’s been an excellent day, the weather is beautiful, and the crowd has been well-behaved, we hit expectations with attendance numbers, which is nice,” he said.
“The atmosphere is wonderful, everywhere you walk there is music, laughter and people having fun, so it makes for a good day for everyone.”
At Flemington, the race that stops the nature saw rank outsider Knight’s Choice storm home to etch its name in history, paying at over 80-1 in some markets for the few punters who rode the winner home.
It was also a day for the long-shots closer to home, with several long-priced rides getting up at the Echuca racecourse.
The race day at Echuca kicked off at 1pm with the Bourke Builders BM58 Handicap, contested over 1600m.
After trailing the eight-horse field at 800 and 400m, 15-1 roughie Cortain came home at pace to take the race, while place-getters Here With Me and Sheer Lunacy also would have paid north of $15 had they scraped home.
Local hope Dismount, trained by Rhys Archard, led with 400 to go but slipped back into the pack down the stretch to finish in sixth.
A highlight of the day was the Caledonian Hotel Road to Jericho Handicap which is a direct qualifier for the 300,000 Jericho Cup in Warrnambool on December 1.
New Zealand gelding Reddivo took out the race in emphatic fashion, pulling away from the pack and never looking back with 1000m still to run.
Breaking from the norm, it turned out to be the proverbial two-horse race in race three, between favourites Highland George and Wild Ruby.
The pair had two lengths on the field in the Murphy’s Turf Landscaping Maiden Plate, Highland George snatching the win by a nose for trainer Jim Lake.
The 1200m race four saw Tongala jockey Rose Hammond mount up for the first of three scheduled rides on the day.
Aboard 21-1 shot Il Americana for regular trainer Gwenda Johnstone, Hammond was lurking at the back of the pack over the first 800, before surging home down the straight to fall narrowly short of a placing, finishing fourth.
Punters on 41-1 ride Trustthesheriff enjoyed a healthy payout as the mare got home by half a length.
Race five, the bet365 Echuca Maiden Plate was a close affair between Clinton McDonald’s four-year-old mare Ohshe’strouble and Lloyd Kennewell and Lucy Yeomans’ three-year-old gelding El Fortress, with the former edging out the latter for victory.
At the time of writing, races six, the Moama Bowling Club Handicap and seven, The Echuca Hotel Handicap had yet to jump.
Farley hopes that with the success of the 2024 iteration of the event, that next year will surpass it.
“Hopefully, we can build on what we’ve had today and can make it bigger and better next year,” he said.
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