Every reason to head to the ‘Hill

He’s one of the real characters of harness racing in the far north-west corner of Victoria, but Boris Devcic and his stable supporters lit up the outback NSW town of Broken Hill at its famed St Patricks celebrations at the weekend.

The weekend features the biggest harness and gallops meetings for the season in the mining city, and Devcic made the trek 300 kilometres up the Silver City Highway for the rich 2023 Rocky Baker Memorial Pacing Cup on Friday night (Mar 11).

“We were lucky enough to win – narrowly! I really did think I’d won by at least a neck and gave a victory wave and lifted my whip after the finish line,” Devcic said.

“Then when I was jogging around and the crowd was cheering, I thought ‘Oh no, let’s hope I’m not wrong’,” he laughed.

To his relief, Devcic got the nod from the judges, officially by a half head, with Buster Reason (For A Reason) snatching victory in the last few strides from leader Yoursnmine.

It was the second win of the season for the four-year-old gelding—his previous also being at the tight Broken Hill circuit on January 21.

Devcic said he became interested in Buster Reason after seeing the pacer advertised for sale on Trading Ring.

“He’d won two in a row at Dubbo and Parkes, and they didn’t want all that much money. I watched some race replays, but virtually bought him sight unseen,” he said.

“A few friends decided to join me in the ownership and they’re pretty pleased because they got a bit over $10,000 for winning the Cup.

“They were all over the moon and the celebrations continued up there the next day. We took the cup all around town and then to the St Pats gallops meeting.

“The other owners who were up there with me were David Merry and a cousin of his wife Jason Richards. We also had the Briggs’s who are loyal supporters but two who couldn’t make the trip were Daniel Tankard and Ruben Davidson.

“It was also very special for my partner Christie Rogers, who grew up in Broken Hill.”

Devcic said while the horse had a few niggling problems early on that he had to sort out, he also made several gear changes.

“We were pleased with his first-up win at Broken Hill in January and then I went a little light on him. I trialled him at Mildura and he went putrid,” he said.

“The best thing I did was put pull-up blocks on the horse. His last run at home prior to the Pacing Cup was good as he ran fifth and was a bit unlucky. Young Ryan (Sanderson) drove him, and he was happy.

“So with that as an incentive and also because he had to draw good at Broken Hill, we decided to run in the Cup. He was a little out of his class, but my only concern was the longer 2500metre trip.

“I needed a soft run, so I just sat and sat there in behind the leader. Then when the gap came everything panned out and we got the win.

“He’s a tough stayer, but hasn’t got much turn of foot. If he can keep improving, there’s got to be some future there.”

Devcic, who is enjoying a handy start to the new season with 11 wins from 37 starters, said the cup victory was one of his big ones in recent years.

“Probably 30 years ago we got good money in winning the Bendigo Cup with Aim First, driven by the late Gavin Lang. And a few years before that we either finished second or third in the Cranbourne Cup,” he said.

Based on the outskirts of Mildura, Devcic has a team of nine in work. He’s trained over 300 winners and official records dating back to 1984/85 show his best season was in 2019-20 when he posted 33 wins.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink