This year’s Rowley Mile had a little bit of everything – a cow on the track, a winning jockey dumped ungracefully on his bottom, and a thrilling photo finish in between.
The Listed feature went to the Chris Waller-trained Bold Mac (NZ) (The Bold One) ($3.80), who continued his rich vein of form with a gutsy half-head victory over the resuming Protagonist (Wotton Bassett) ($3.60 fav), with local hope Ruby Flyer (Flying Artie) ($4.60) running the race of his life to finish another half-length away third.
But there was as much interest before and after the event as there was in it.
A wayward cow who had wandered onto the track caused a minor delay to the start before officials were able to shoe him back to his nearby paddock.
Once the field jumped, the race went almost to script with the two fancied runners fighting out the finish.
Kerrin Mcevoy (Bold Mac) wasn’t sure he’d won but was happy to take the decision over rival hoop Hugh Bowman (Protagonist), who is briefly back in town during a break between Hong Kong racing seasons.
“It’s a bit hard to tell out there when you’re wide out. I always get these photos wrong, especially here, so I’m never too confident,” McEvoy told Sky Thoroughbred Central.
“I could hear Bowman coming up my inside, but my fella’ showed a good bit of tenacity the last furlong and was able to get his head in front.”
McEvoy momentarily had the smile wiped from his face when Bold Mac shied on return to scale, dumping the top hoop on the track.
Thankfully horse and rider escaped uninjured, although McEvoy’s ego might have suffered some bruising.
“He was bowling back really freely and he just spotted someone on the inside rail and darted out from underneath me and absolutely ‘pizzled’ me, so lucky we got the win,” he quipped.
Bold Mac continues Waller’s outstanding strikerate in the Rowley Mile (1600m) with the trainer now winning five of the past eight renewals.
The winner of three of his nine starts in New Zealand prior to joining Waller, Bold Mac was bred by Bernie Gudsell, who races the gelding with members of his extended family plus his original trainer Colin Cromarty.
Bold Mac’s sire The Bold One (NZ) is an impeccably bred son of Fastnet Rock and Group One winner The Jewel (NZ) (O’Reilly) and stands at Grangewilliam Stud for a fee of $4,000 plus GST.
The dam of Bold Mac is the useful racemare Mrs Mac (NZ) (Columbia), a half-sister to seven-race winner Zumba (NZ) (No Excuse Needed).
