Although it was only a country cup run on a dirt track 3 long hours away from the bright lights of Perth, THE MOON DAY won the Collie Cup on Saturday and in the process notched up win number 200 for horses racing in the blue and white Belhus colours!
Country racing is the real heart and soul of racing in Australia, and we just love winning country cups! The on course crowd were having a great time of it, the bar and the bookies were doing a roaring trade, the hamburger shop and the ice cream van coldn’t keep up with the queues, and then the race that stops a coal mining town got under way…
Veteran jockey ‘Dashing’ Dan Miller got over from his wide draw and box seated The Moon Day who started a clear second favourite to the Adam Durrant trained Scotland Street. The two most fancied horses in the race took off together from the 500m leaving the oppostion in their wake. It was a two horse war for the length of the straight, and after being headed by Scotland Street, The Moon Day dug deep, taking every possible ounce of energy out of those licorice allsorts I gave him on the way down, to eventually gain the upperhand and win by a comfortable 3/4 of a length on the line.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Durrant trained Scotland Street was the best horse in the race-it’s just that mine was better prepared…
Part owners Paul Luzi and Geoff & Kathy Baldwin were on course to share the day with us, and here’s a pic of the with the trophy….
After shooting in for quite a while trying to score our 200th, it was good to win it and get it out of the way. Now we’re looking towards 250!