Albury horse trainers win early races at Boxing Day meet

The Donna Scott-trained Dreams Afar ($3EF) claimed a gritty 0.2 length win over Tee Cee Tracey ($15), with Kooky Kangaroo ($3EF) another 0.79 length back in the opening maiden over 900m.

"(The most pleasing part was) how tough she was, she looked like she was gone, but fought back really hard and hopefully she can get out over a bit more ground and we can win another one with her," Scott praised.

The four-year-old mare struggled on the heavier tracks over winter, finishing last over 1180m at Gundagai on August 2.

"She showed us a little bit early doors, but she was running on wet tracks and didn't get through it, we just waited for summer, we were going to trial her again, but thought we'd send her around here and she'd pick up a bit of prizemoney, which she was able to do," Scott explained.

Dreams Afar also provided a winning start for former Border star, now Canberra-based jockey Brendan Ward.

"That was its grade today, it's been racing on the heavier tracks, but that was a good effort," he suggested.

Meanwhile, it was an even tighter finish in the 1600m maiden.

Classy Nigella ($7) and Meladia ($1.70F) staged a thrilling run to the post with the former snaring a 0.14 length win.

"She has a fair bit of ability this horse, but she didn't handle the wet tracks, she had a pretty good run over the 1500 and I backed her up, she didn't back up (well) and then had the two weeks off, today was the day or she would have been sacked," trainer Jodie Bohr laughed after the thriller.

Fellow Albury trainer Mitch Beer had the favourite in four-year-old mare Meladia.

"I wasn't sure if she was going to be able to beat Meladia, I know Mitch has a strong opinion of Meladia," Bohr added.

Wangaratta trainer Andrew Dale quinealled the Class One handicap (1175m).

Dale's respective four-year-old and six-year-old geldings - Royal Gun Salute ($3.60EF) and Crooked Creek ($6) - had too much for Destiny's Ghost ($3.60EF).

Jockey Jake Bayliss snapped up his second win with the Erin Maher-trained Col's Hero in the Benchmark 50 handicap (1175m).

Just like his thrilling win aboard Classy Nigella, Bayliss did enough, this time by only 0.07 length, from Lace and Whiskey ($3.80) and So You Shop ($4.40).

It was Albury's third Boxing Day meet.

ALSO IN SPORT

"It looks healthy, we're probably sitting around 600, we're not going to crack 1000, the pre-sales were up a lot, which is great," CEO Steve Hetherton revealed.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: