“They nearly lifted the roof off the bar”

A hometown hero had the locals cheering all the way down the home straight in one of two features conducted at yesterday’s St Arnaud harness racing cup meeting.

Six-year-old gelding Travel Bug (Dream Vacation), raced by the well-known local and popular McNaulty family, cruised to an easy win in the BSL St Arnaud Sporting Club Trotters Cup.

While it was his 12th victory in a career that’s earnt him over $130,000, it would be fair to say that as far as emotion goes, the St Arnaud Cup victory was up there with the best. It marked the first for the recently formed training partnership of the McNaulty brothers, Shaun and Jason.

Even the usually cool and calm customer in James Herbertson, the winning driver, got caught up in the excitement with an out of character wave of the whip on the finish line to the cheering spectators.

“It was for the McNaulty boys because that race meant everything to them, they’ve been wanting to win it for a long time,” Herbertson said.

“I could hear them going right off—they would have nearly lifted the roof off the bar!” he said.

Travel Bug won by 12 metres from Robbie Royal with race favorite Blue Coman a further two metres back in third spot.

The McNaulty colors will be flying over the nearby watering hole, the Logan Pub, in days to come, and no doubt at the after party the winning margin will have blown out to the “length of the straight” — but the joy around the victory epitomizes the essence of country harness racing and the people who simply love their sport.

In the Weirs IGA St Arnaud Pacing Cup, father-and-son combination Tim and Darby McGuigan prevailed when longshot Byalla Boy (Shadow Play) was too strong in an action-packed event.

Darby pinged the eight-year-old out to the front and after keeping the pace rolling along, then fought doggedly, albeit putting in a few rough strides on the home corner, to hold out Vanquish Stride and Sew What.

Approaching the bell, Modern Bliss who was tucked in behind Byalla Boy, dropped out abruptly and as a result, many changes came into play. Stewards later reported the horse to have suffered an atrial fibrillation and it was stood down from racing.

Byalla Boy, with a Bendigo win and two Melton placings in his past five starts, was surprisingly sent out as a 25/1 chance. The pacer, raced by Fiona McGuigan, now has five wins and 10 placings from 34 outings this season.

Club officials were ecstatic at the success of the first cup meeting back home after the unveiling of brand new administrative and hospitality facilities, as part of a multipurpose sporting complex at Lord Nelson Park.

“We had 28 millimetres of rain overnight, so we really didn’t even think we would get racing – but the track was perfect, and it was a fantastic day,” club president Kaye Boyd said.

“A very good crowd attended, considering the weather and it was such a thrill to get a local win in the Trotters Cup and in race 7 (Captain Pins (Captaintreacherous) trained by Denis McIntyre).  The crowd really loves to get behind the locals, so that just makes the day,” she said.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink