ZARCAS broke through at start number 23 at Tamworth on Saturday in a win that surprised everyone, including the trainer and even the semaphore board.
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While the semaphore board had number three, Stir it Up, the winner, Zarcas’s number nine was the correct number.
It produced a laugh from Tamworth trainer Mark Hatch, who prepares the four-year-old mare for Geoff Lockwood and Kris Thomas.
“She surprised everyone,” Hatch said.
“Sophie rode her well though.”
He has no high hopes for the daughter of Zariz.
“We’ll just poke along and look for an easy one,” he said.
Zarcas beat the Garry Hartley-trained Young Eve by a length but Hartley didn’t have to wait long for his win.
The very next race his five-year-old gelding was the medium of a beautifully-paced ride from Belinda Hodder.
She waited back in the field and pounced down the middle of the track to win with First Noel.
It was First Noel’s first win in 15 starts for his Tamworth owner-trainer.
He was delighted with the win and thought the ride by Hodder was exactly what other jockeys had not provided in previous runs.
The Tamworth Jockey Club staged six races on Saturday and backs up within a week with an eight-race TAB program this Friday.
Tamworth received 95 nominations for that meeting, the feature race of which is the $15,000 Tamworth City Toyota B70 Handicap (1000m).
It drew just six nominations though, including Quirindi Lightning winner Opera Blu (George Woodward) and talented Tamworth sprinter Hot Diggity (Mark Mason).