Home cheer at union races

By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE trainers Robbie Griffiths, Colin Davies and Mick Kent were among the winners on Sunday’s successful Trade Union family race day at their home track.
While Caulfield mentor Peter Moody took out the feature $35,000 Cbus/VTU Plate with Diamond Cove, the support card was dominated by locally prepared horses and Griffiths led the charge with a double.
His talented Class 3 performer Count To Zero, ridden perfectly by Brad Rawiller, saluted in the fifth event and the two horsemen combined again to win the final race on the card when Pietro Vannucci stormed home to grab a last-gasp victory in the Class 2 Showcase.
Count To Zero’s win was dominant, with Rawiller saying afterwards that its class, coupled with Griffiths’ astute placing, could see it quickly progress to metropolitan racing.
Earlier in the day popular local trainer Davies started the Cranbourne ball rolling when former Queenslander Pure Dancer outclassed his rivals in the interestingly named ‘Nov 25 – When It Matters Vote 1 ALP’ Maiden Plate over 1200 metres.
Davies said he expected the gelding, formerly trained by Dale Sutton, to win two starts ago at Yarra Glen and was confident before the race.
“I’ve only had him a short time and that was his fourth start for me, but I thought he would win today,” Davies said.
“After the Yarra Glen (fourth placing) I ran him at Werribee and I knew that they would go a bit quick for him, but he ran on really and showed he had the heart for racing. So today at 1200 metres, it suited him perfectly.”
Davies said Pure Dancer was suited to anti-clockwise tracks and believed it had a bright future.
“The owner (Steven Clark) used to race a horse with me years ago and I watched a few of this horse’s races in Queensland on video and I thought he got on the ‘Melbourne leg’. He wasn’t having any luck with it in Queensland, but it looked a nice horse, so he sent it down to me,” he said.
“We hope he might go on now. We’ll just take him step by step, but I think he might have city (race) potential over 1400 metres.”
Joining Rawiller, with two wins on the program, were fellow hoops Tony Carson and Luke Nolen, while Cranbourne jockey Mark Flaherty joined the fun when he piloted lightly raced four-year-old Rubijack to an effortless win in the 1600-metre Class 1 Handicap.
Flaherty predicted a good future for the horse.
“He’s pretty straight forward to ride, but he’s game and I think he will develop into a pretty nice horse,” he said.
“Once I got left alone in front, he relaxed underneath me and quickened nicely when I asked him for an effort. It was a good win.”
Another highlight of the afternoon’s on-course action was the effort of Mick Kent’s three-year-old filly Chanson Bleu and rider Darren Gauci to win the NUM Plate maiden over 1600 metres.
Starting at $4.10, Chanson Bleu downed $3.50 favourite Bacara by half a length in an exciting finish.
Despite an early threat of rain, a good crowd of 4000 attended the day with the dominant theme being family fun.
Club chairman Robin Daley praised patrons and union organisers, saying that the race meeting had become a major event on the annual calendar and was an important part of extending horse racing to the working community.
Among off-course attractions were professional footraces on the track between races, together with live music and a variety of children’s activities.