Ray Sellwood scoffs at the suggestion the TAB Eureka is a race for the big wigs.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to take a quick glance at the results and assume that when you see the dominance of champions Emma Stewart, Clayton Tonkin and Luke McCarthy across the first three years of the world\u2019s richest harness race.<\/p>\n
But that annoys Sellwood, a former bush footy player and businessman from Undera in the Goulburn Valley, who says the race is the ultimate coming together of all types of participants in harness racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere I am, a bushie from country Victoria, standing here tonight with Kevin Seymour, John Hawkes, Rob Watson, the Summit Bloodstock team and so many others. I\u2019d never meet these people if it wasn\u2019t for this race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s five of us in the group who race Miki To Success and we\u2019re living a dream in this race.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure there\u2019s heavyweights involved in the race, but we\u2019re living proof anyone can be part of it. Anyone can breed or own a horse good enough to be part of the TAB Eureka.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just wrong to say it\u2019s an elitist race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sellwood said just being part of the race felt like a win despite Miki To Success finishing a close-up fifth to stablemate Bay of Biscay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re had the greatest ride this week, just the best fun up here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people we\u2019ve met, the places we\u2019ve been, the dinners we\u2019ve had \u2026 what a week and it\u2019s all because we had a horse good enough to get a slot in the TAB Eureka.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miki To Success was one of last horses to land a slot, basically forcing his way into the race with a stunning Racenet Discovery Stakes win\u00a0two weeks before the TAB Eureka.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe race didn\u2019t quite turn out the way we hoped, starting with drawing the outside, but we were thrilled just to be part of it and with how well he went,\u201d Sellwood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you swap the runs (with Bay Of Biscay), I think we\u2019d have won.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to think we\u2019ve got a horse good enough to win or run really well at this level and he\u2019s still got it all ahead of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis horse has been almost 50 years in the making for me. I\u2019ve been around the game my entire life and bred this horse with my father.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it has been a long time coming but the wait has certainly been worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sellwood\u2019s story was just part of a wonderful third running of the TAB Eureka in front of a packed and passionate Menangle crowd.<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 general admission tickets were confirmed and then you can add in all the participants and invited guests and it was a heck of a crowd.<\/p>\n
And a crowd that was both engaged with the brilliant on-course entertainment (how good was the Living End!), fantastic racing and accompanying night markets.<\/p>\n
Many of the slot owners had their own events within the event, with marquees spread down the length of the long Menangle home straight.<\/p>\n
Team Zav had what seemed like an army of guests, it was the same with the Summit Bloodstock & Aaron Bain team.<\/p>\n
Hall of Fame thoroughbred trainer John Hawkes and his team with TAB Eureka runner Seathestars filled three tables in the official function.<\/p>\n
In a real coup for the game, Hawkes\u2019 sons and co-trainers Michael and Wayne Hawkes were also trackside. So the \u201creal\u201d boss, Hawkes\u2019 wonderful wife, Jenny.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the trots. Sitting at home watching them on a Saturday night (with John) after the races (thoroughbreds) are finished is our thing,\u201d Jenny said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favourite horse was King Of Swing. When John bought a yearling earlier this year, I asked Michael what it was by, and he said Captaintreacherous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him to go back and buy one by King Of Swing. We got one. He\u2019ll be my favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part-owners in both those yearlings are three of Sydney\u2019s top jockeys, Tommy Berry, Zac Lloyd and Tyler Schiller.<\/p>\n
Amazingly, all three were trackside at Menangle last night.<\/p>\n
In just a few weeks, Schiller will ride Team Hawkes\u2019 untapped sprinter Briasa in Australia\u2019s richest race, the $20mil TAB Everest at Randwick.<\/p>\n
Schiller admits to having a \u201creal passion\u201d for the trots and Lloyd was a convert last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been here, how good is this!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
How good, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ray Sellwood scoffs at the suggestion the TAB Eureka is a race for the big wigs. It\u2019s easy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-121935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}