Goulburn-trained horses made a spectacular return to racing in the Riverina on Friday, with five wins from eight races in Wagga.
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For the duration of the COVID lockdown, harness racing has not ceased in NSW, but regionalised so racers based in the Goulburn area could only run in Menangle.
Brad Hewitt (Boston Busker), Sam Hewitt (Fastnflashy), Dean Cernovskis (Game Set Major), Neil Day (Dance Away), and Dennis Day (Neils Reactor) were the winning trainers, and collectively claimed victories in the first four races of the meet and the final race.
"It's tremendous, it shows the strength of the horse and quality of horse in the Goulburn area," Goulburn Harness Racing Club vice president Mark Croatto said.
"And they've been competing very well at Menangle at well.
"Menangle's hard because it's very high prize money, so it has a concentration of the best horses in NSW. To compete there gives a good idea of the quality of Goulburn horses at the moment."
Neil Day and Dance Away opened Goulburn's account with a win in the first race, which was especially pleasing for the trainer considering the youth and relative inexperience of his horse, who claimed a fifth on debut at Menangle.
"He's still very new and learning his craft but has a fair bit of natural ability," Day said.
"He's come forward for his first race and worked good at home during the week so I expected him to run well.
"Hopefully he can continue on."
After a long period of racing in the highly competitive metropolitan zone at Menangle, it came as a relief to Day to see restrictions relax.
"Here you make a racehorse of them rather than going down there and putting them on the chopping block straight away," Day said.
"It's been hard since we've been in zones with us down with the metropolitan people as the racing down there is a fair bit stronger.
"It does help when we can place the horses where they need to be."
Following strong results in Wagga, Cernovskis (Scoob Operator) and Brad Hewitt (Arma The Gun) claimed wins in the first and seventh races at Menangle on Saturday.
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