Sport
17 July, 2026
Star spangled trotters
THE annual USA Independence Day meeting sponsored by Ames Australasia at Charlton last Monday was well attended and with the first two races being won by pacers with local connections there was plenty to celebrate.
THE annual USA Independence Day meeting sponsored by Ames Australasia at Charlton last Monday was well attended and with the first two races being won by pacers with local connections there was plenty to celebrate.
The winner of Race 1 was the Matt Craven-trained and driven El Lazzar who is raced by Jane Snell and Les Mason of St Arnaud.
Living up to the form it showed in a recent second at Horsham, the three-year-old gelded son of Lazarus worked his way to the front before the first corner and from there it was just a procession with the $1.25 favourite winning by 10.4m in a time of 1.56.4.
Lazarus, apart from being a top racehorse, has been a sensation at stud with forty-five of his progeny winning from the fifty-four that have made it to the track to date.
The winner’s dam is Catapult USA who has left five winners including Breach The Beach (22 wins) and Slingshot (25 wins).
Race 2 was the Josie Harvey Memorial and the winner was the Mark Boyle trained Sporting Rage who had been placed second at three of its previous four starts.
A six-year-old gelding by Sportswriter USA the winner is raced by M, J and K Boyle and T Lord and has now won eleven races in all.
At Mildura on Friday, the drivers that make the weekly trek up the Calder Highway almost got the lot winning seven of the eight races on the card.
Luke Dunne drove an early double and then it was Connor Clarke with two wins before Jack Laugher won two and then Ellen Tormey collected the spoils in the last race.
Tonight Melton fills in for Bendigo and then on Friday Mildura is on again in the daylight hours with Stawell racing around the tent on Monday, unless of course it has been sold.
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