Above: The Cadbury Schweppes Plate was won by star Cranbourne based hoop Craig Newitt on Lee Freedman’s handy galloper Sky Devil.By Brad Kingsbury
THE action on and off the track at last Thursday’s Cranbourne race meeting was hot as the temperature soared to 40 degrees during the afternoon.
Stewards and Cranbourne Turf Club officials were on to the situation quickly however and there was plenty of water available for both humans and horses with cooling hose-downs provided throughout the day in a successful effort to keep the meeting on track.
The home track advantage was telling in four of the day’s eight races and among those highlights was a win for popular Cranbourne mentor Nevin Eades in the Star News Group Maiden Plate with his filly Fiction Star.
The three-year-old galloper was having its seventh start after several unlucky attempts to win its first race and punters shied away from her with the winning TAB dividend of $18.60 providing great value for those who supported the local horse.
Earlier in the sweltering afternoon Eades’ counterpart Greg Eurell scored the first of the local foursome when The Golden Guzzler saluted in the second race, while the day ended on a positive note for Cranbourne trainers Pat Hyland and Doug Harrison with success in the last two events on the program.
Hyland took out the 1200-metre Showcase race with Panov, ridden by apprentice jockey Wayne Egan and Harrison followed that up with victory in the final race with Spectrum Blitz, piloted by another apprentice rider in Ibrahim Gundogdu.
Cranbourne based jockey Craig Newitt added another winner to his impressive season’s list when he booted home Sky Devil for Lee Freedman in the Cadbury Schweppes Plate.
