RAIN threatened to disrupt Wagga’s harness racing meeting on Friday, but horses and drivers a like braved the tough conditions.
The wet track did nothing to deter Wamboyne Woody who led all of the way to win the Signs Plus Pace (2165m).
Back to his favourite roll in front of the field, Wamboyne Woody left the gate smartly and from there was able to dominate his rivals.
The four-year-old has built an impressive record of 10 wins and three placings from 25 starts, but trainer-driver Ross Arentz is working on making his charge a more complete racehorse.
He has a tendency to give up when he races from back in the field, however that was never going to be the case after drawing barrier two as eased to a 12 metre win.
“I don’t know why as he’s always trialled good from behind but at the races he always likes to be up front and doesn’t really hook in from the back,” Arentz said.
“I gave him a few weeks off and worked him up again, changed his training and I thought he went quite good first up when he was third.
“We sat three back the fence and he did run home pretty good and he’s been working pretty good since there.
“That’s really the first time that he’s done it and a couple of times I’ve tested his heart rate after the race and he just doesn’t try from the back if it’s too hard.”
The son of Ambro Operative started the season off in impressive fashion, with a two wins and a third from his first three starts, before his form tapered off.
Given a short let up, the Ladysmith horseman decided to change his training routine in an attempt to bring out his toughness.
With most of his winning form in shorter races, the extra distance was no problem after the training changes.
“I’m working him over a bit further,” Arentz said.
“I just to give him heat work but now I give him one good solid work out to try and make him a bit stronger as he’s always been fast.
“I thought the heat work was making him speedy but I’m trying to give him a bit of stamina and make him stay a bit.”
Despite the less than ideal conditions Wamboyne Woody clocked a good mile rate of 2:01.5 for 2165 metres, coming home in a last half of 59.7 seconds.
It was the fastest mile rate for the longer trip, with Holm Three clocking 1:58.7 in the second of the Menangle Country Series heats over 1755 metres.
Narrandera trainer Shaun Snudden took out overall honours for the meeting, training a winning double.
Weliveinhope led all the way for Snudden before Itsallaboutex was able to get a run alongside the pegs to score.
Coolamon will host its Carnival Of Cups meeting on Sunday, with trotters dominating the programme.
The meeting was planned to be an all trotters day, but three pacing races will boost the numbers.
The group three La Coocaracha is the feature race and will be run at 3.46pm with the first race at 12.45pm.
