Melbourne Cup jockey wins at Stony Creek

MELBOURNE Cup winning jockey Jye McNeil started the day well at Stony Creek winning the first race on the card for Publicans Day, riding Helping Hand trained by Jason Warren and owned by Gerry Harvey co-founder of the Harvey Norman retail chain.

Stony Creek Racing Club CEO Jason Benbow could not have been happier.

“A fantastic day weatherwise, we’ve been very lucky with our four race days so far.”

It was indeed a lovely day to be at the races with live music and a Footy Club Sprint.

Jason admitted to some teething problems last year with the new irrigation system.

“It was a new tool for our team and that experience has carried over. We are very fortunate that with the dry conditions the club now has adequate water as required.”

Despite a desperate lack of rain over recent weeks the track was declared Soft 5.

“It was a great investment,” said Jason

Publicans Day is an annual feature on the Stony Creek race calendar providing an opportunity for the club to engage with local publicans.

“We’ve been doing it for 15 years,” said Jason.

“The local pub is the meeting place for the whole community.”

Jye McNeil’s win in the first race of the day came as no surprise to Jason Benbow.

“It was his first ride at Stony Creek since he won the Melbourne Cup and shows that owners and trainers are happy to come here.”

With that calibre of jockeys and trainers attending the Stony Creek race meetings Jason Benbow said it shows the Stony Creek Race Club is on the right path. The next race meeting is the Stony Creek Cup on Sunday March 8 over the Labour Day long weekend.

“S.E.N. are doing an outside broadcast from the course.”

Jason has just one small item left in his diary before Cup Day, the former Group 1 jockey will return to the Foster Show on Saturday February 28 to judge Best Mullet.

Jye McNeil ended his day at Stony Creek with two wins the Ladbrokes Big Best Maiden Plate on Helping Hands and the San Remo Hotel Handicap riding Phantom Prince.