BALLARAT trainer Mathew Smerdon has his four-year-old Eight Under racing in career best form after another impressive win in the Mildura Motor Holdings Handicap at the bet365 Mildura meeting in front of a big crowd on Sunday.
Eight Under made back-to-back wins as he recorded a brave win at his previous outing at Kyneton on May 8.
“He did a good job at Kyneton as he hung in down the straight and I checked him over after the run and there were no issues with him, so he didn’t handle the tight track,” Smerdon said.
“For that reason, I was looking forward to bringing him up here to race on the bigger Mildura track and I must admit I was surprised with his (betting) odds for the race (starting price of $15).”
Eight Under settled mid-field in the early stages of the race, but he was obliged to race three-wide so jockey Logan McNeil decided to send him forward to sit up outside of the leader Dubai Legend.
It proved to be the winning move as Eight Under raced to the lead early in the home straight and held off a late challenge from the South Australian visitor and the favourite in the event, Zain Prince, to win by a half-length.
Eight Under has been given a long and thorough education so far during his career as he has had 14 trials or jumpouts including having seven of them prior to making his racing debut in February last year.
He has now taken his record to two wins from only eight outings and he should continue to go through his classes this preparation.
It is no surprise that Smerdon decided to join the training ranks back in 2022 as his father John is a successful trainer based in the Gold Coast and Mathew is the nephew of Robert, a former multiple Group 1 winning trainer.
His brother, Nathan, had a stint as a jockey who achieved 28 career wins including success as a jumping jockey.
“I never knew Nathan was riding over the jumps at the time as I was over in America riding at Rodeos,” Smerdon said.
Smerdon had a long association with David Price of Price Bloodstock as he broke in and pre-trained horses for him over a 10-year period and he also works as a barrier attendant as his second job including at the Mildura Cup Carnival.
Smerdon is now looking forward to continuing and improving on his training career.
Jockey Logan McNeil achieved a winning double on the program as he was also successful with The Creed for the Gawler training partnership of Kerri McAnulty and Clint Binnie.
Linton based jockey Steven Vella was successful in the opening race on the program with Allinthetiming for the Patrick and Michelle Payne stable as well as Vilnius who was having his first run for his stable in partnership with his wife Kylie.
It was also a good day for Swan Hill based trainers Austy Coffey and Con Kelly who were successful with Mistavain and Shal Exceed respectively with both horses ridden to victory by in-form jockey Neil Farley.
The bet365 Mildura Cup Carnival will be the next meeting with the two-day carnival to be run on Friday, July 18 (Cup Day) and Saturday, July 19.
All packages available at the bet365 Mildura Cup Day can be viewed and booked via the country.racing.com/mildura website.
