The resurgence of Orange as an important player in country racing continued with a tremendous crowd at Towac Park.
Although not programmed with any feature races, the attendance equalled or bettered that at many cup meetings in the region.
A 14-horse field contested the highest grade race, the 1300 metres Central West Power Construction Benchmark 82 Handicap, won by the Danielle Seib, Canberra-trained Master Of Disguise ridden by apprentice Dale Cole.
Suffering horrific injuries at trackwork when bucked from a horse and dragged hundreds of metres, Dale Cole after more than 12 months recovery made a miracle return to the saddle and rode his first winner at Goulburn in May this year.
Dale Cole has now ridden 10 winners and it was a cool and well-judged ride on Master Of Disguise which led early before being steadied to have a nice run close to Life’s A Party.
Taking advantage of an inside run, Master Of Disguise ($2.05) took control in the straight to win by two lengths from the fast finishing How’s It Kev (Jordan Quince, $21) with Life’s A Party (Donovan Dillon, $15) a head away third.
Local trainer Alison Smith before her second with How’s It Kev had been a popular winner of the 1280 metres On-Track Ag Maiden Plate with Rosie I Am.
Street Skater (Wendy Peel, $3.40 favourite) took the lead in the straight from Bastion however after a good battle Rosie I Am (Clayton Gallagher, $6) won by a half-length from Street Skater while Twin Gift (Zoe Hunt, $31) ran home well for third.
Bred and owned by Michael Kennedy, formerly from the Come-By-Chance area and now living at Orange, the Clint Lundholm, Dubbo-trained Crook ($5 favourite) well ridden by apprentice Zoe Hunt, was ready to pounce turning for home and swept to a strong win over Jacob Joe (Pierre Boudvillain, $14) and Quick Onyx (Grant Buckley, $9.50) in the 1000 metres Pirtek Orange Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap.
Another Dubbo trainer with a winner was Connie Greig with Broadcast Boogie (Mikayla Weir, $4.40) in the 1600 metres Tamburlaine Organic Wines Maiden Handicap.
