Local trainers bag half the home program OCAL TRAINERS BAG HALF HOME PROGRAM

THERE’S no place like home!

Hawkesbury trainers revelled in their home track’s second last meeting of the season today, capturing half the eight-race program and boosting to 156 the number of winners prepared by the local base since August 1.

Image Courtesy of Bradley Photos

Terry Croft landed the opener and Jason Attard the closer, and Brad Widdup and Steve O’Halloran were successful in between.

O’Halloran’s Extravagant three-year-old Mal Coupe has come a long way since when as a younger horse, he crashed through a fence on his owners’ Gary and Kay Stevenson’s property near Orange.

He was cut from the shoulder to the fetlock joint, and a vet recommended he be put down.

“Touch wood Mal Coupe (a French name which translated to English means badly cut) hasn’t had a day’s lameness since he came to me,” O’Halloran said.

“Just don’t look at the scar on his near foreleg.

“Mal Coupe has really blossomed this preparation, with his four runs producing two wins and two seconds.

“Winona Costin gave him a great ride. She jumped him away smartly, and Mal Coupe gave a good kick on straightening and they were never really going to run him down.”

*Words by John Curtis for hawkesburyraceclub.com.au