In bright spring ( nearly!!) sunshine, 43 eager riders lined up to rip into the north easterly zephyr of a breeze at Lorneville on Saturday. And the next time the field saw the front markers was prize giving!! Jim “lucky” Phair, Chris “plucky” Russell and Kate “trucky” Wilson worked well with Barry “is it always this hot here in July?” Ellis until he slipped off the pace. They rode smoothly to finish 3, 2, 1 with Kate showing the strength of Mack truck at the finish to take... the win.
The 4th group also worked well to mop up the other early bunches with Garry “send me back 2 bunches” McLister showing too much strength to head off the mid-marker ensemble and take 4th.
The Scratch quartet of Robert “Team Giant” Huisman, Luke “retired to town” Macpherson, Fraser “fresh bread buns” Hewett and Tom “pup” Sexton, after donating various amounts of a 26 minute handicap to the field, flying through to pick up all of the back half of the bunches and only missing the front of the race by just over a minute.
Jim “lucky and I’ll have to come back next week” Phair, won the $25 spot prize.
Great to see the new faces this week, the 2 on the podium, James Jubb, Steve Rhodes, Ben “dairy farm” Worker and also the new/old face of Garry McLister down from Central Otago for the good weather.
Thanks to Lindsay Tait-Jones for the STMS, Robin “reliable every week” Criglington and the marshalls who all did a superb job.
Report courtesy of Manager Tony Hammington