Track invasion

One or two roos appeared trackside just as the horses were going out for the seventh of the eight-race card — and when one horse baulked as several roos jumped onto the track proper, the club had a problem.

With all the confusion and more and more horses coming onto the track the kangaroos retreated to the centre of the track where they looked like camping for the day.

Unless they could be moved there was no way the race could be run.

Anyone with kangaroo experience would know getting a mob to behave the way you want is akin to herding cats.

But one track staff member hopped on an ATV and turned on a droving clinic as he got every roo to flee the centre, cross the back straight and head for the bush.

And the $22000 RMBL Investments Rising Stars over 1200m saw the horses loaded into the gate and sent on their way.

Odds-on favourite Smuggling, trained by Nagambie’s Stephen Brown, seemed stuck behind a line of four across the track all looking for the lead and appeared to be shuffled back as Tamerett on the outside and Cosmic Rush on the fence surged ahead to take up the running.

The small field hit the bend into the straight in a line of six with Tamerett looking the best shot as it hugged the running rail and gained a small break.

But in a fairly bumpy run to the post Smuggling hit the front and just outlasted a flying Pure Colour, first up from a spell.

The official margin was a head by a neck but in the photo it looked more like a nose.

Brown said Smuggling had finished second in a race on Thursday at Kyneton but had pulled up well.

He agreed he had been confident the six-year-old gelding would live up to his very short price favouritism.

‘‘He’s doing a treat and has got a glow in his eye so yeah, I was pretty confident,’’ Brown said.

‘‘I got interested in backing him up from Thursday when I received a text to say it was only seven starters and it looked a good race for him,’’ he said.

Brown had expected his horse to sit up outside the leader but jockey Mitch Aitken seemed content to bide his time behind the pacesetters.

After returning to the mounting yard Aitken described the win as ‘‘quite an easy run’’.

‘‘I just parked him behind the pace but when we headed for home he didn’t have the ping in his legs after last week,’’ Aitken said.

‘‘He was a bit dour but had the fitness from the previous run and still ran well.’’

Commentators also agreed his ride was lucky the race was 1200m and not 1201m because Seymour jockey Tahlia Hope came flying down the outside on Paddy Payne’s Pure Colour and was past Smuggling half a stride beyond the line.

Thornton triple

Apart from the entertainment of the kangaroos and a local trainer getting a win, the day really belonged to jockey Damien Thornton, who landed a treble.

He won the $23000 Lloyd Sound Plate over 1200m for trainers Matthew Ellerton and Simon Zahra and then took out the next race, the $23000 Mitchelton Wines Plate over 1414m with Allan and Jason Williams’ Trophy Cabinet, a winner at only its second start.

Thornton’s third leg was a pick-up ride after Dylan Dunn could not make the meeting.

Riding Jamie Edwards’ Minyinga in the lucky last — the $22000 bet365 Official Price Guarantee — Thornton had to throw everything at his mount as it slowly wore down the front-running My Mother Says.

In a bobbing finish he said he was certain he had lost.

‘‘I wasn’t sure he had got there and thought we were beaten on the line,’’ Thornton admitted.

But the official photo showed he had won the closest finish of the day.