Gippsland horses on track

GIPPSLAND horses captured two of the support races at the Geelong Cup meeting last Saturday night.
Although there were no local candidates in the feature race, both Gippsland winners are highly talented young horses in the making.
Ronerail, trained at Longwarry North by Michael Hughes, collected the McNamara Memorial Cup for trotters with a dashing display.
Sent to the front of the field in the early stages by driver Geoff Walker, Ronerail cruised away from his rivals at the 400metre mark and was never in danger of losing.
Saturday’s event was Ronerail’s second attempt at racing against older, more experienced horses. This is not a bad effort for a horse that has only raced 18 times, for nine wins.
Later in the evening, the Gary and Debbie Quinlan prepared Cyclone Betty continued her consistent record with a narrow, but tough win in the Oaks Trial.
Although the experts weren’t as impressed with Cyclone Betty’s win compared to that of Ronerail, she could be a serious contender in better races over coming weeks.
Connections are looking towards a berth in the rich Victoria Oaks at Moonee Valley in a couple of months with the classy threeyearold.
With horses such as these two and others currently racing out of Gippsland, local trotting followers have much to look forward to in 2007.