FOR Charlton trainer Greg Norman, Cee Cee In America's victory at Lord's Raceway on Monday was essentially a double win.
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Content with just being able to continue racing, Norman views anything on top of that as a bonus.
"It's not a matter of being a fan of (regional racing) or not, it's kept us going," he said.
"We could just have easily been not racing at all, which would have been hard on everyone.
"To keep it going and still have some racing opportunity, it's been great for the people involved in the industry. HRV have done a great job."
A true realist, Norman acknowledges wins will be tougher to come by now that the Bendigo region has opened up and joined with Shepparton, Kilmore and Cranbourne to form an amalgamated racing area.
But that he says is 'just the nature of the beast' in racing and he welcomes the competition and camaraderie.
Norman was naturally pleased with his first foray into the second phase of regional racing following Cee Cee In America's fighting four-year-old and older pace win at Bendigo on Monday.
"He ran 1:53, which is pretty good time. He just fell in, but he went very hard out of the gate and ran a pretty good race," he said.
"He's had a bit of a freshen up, it was only his third run back. He went alright the week before, he got caught in the death and got beaten in a pretty quick time.
"I think he was building up to a win - I wasn't surprised that he won."
Cee Cee In America overcame a handy field to beat the Tim Mannix-trained All Whitey Then by a short-half head, with Form Analyst for Terry and Tayla French close up in third.
The consistent All Whitey Then, with star reinsman Chris Alford in the sulky, was targeting a third consecutive win at Lord's Raceway, but came up just short of victory.
Norman had the services of a champion of his own in Brian Gath, who was quick to add his tally of eight winners accumulated during the first regional racing period.
He said, like everyone, he was glad to see the veteran reinsman getting his increased opportunities.
"He's driven a few winners for me over the years, Brian. He won a Maryborough Cup for me on old Ti Vogliobene - he's a great driver," Norman said.
"He's getting the drives now. It doesn't matter how good you drive, you still need the cattle.
"He's get on some nice horses and has certainly done a great job through the regional racing."
Monday's victory boosted the four-year-old gelding's career record to seven wins and 20 placings from 47 starts, for earnings of $71,155.
Thirteen of those placings have been seconds.
Norman is optimistic of a city-grade win with the son of American Ideal when racing returns to normal, potentially from July.
"He still has to win his M0, or whatever they call it these days with the new ratings system," he said.
"He's still got that in him. Hopefully, they get those up and running at Melton again soon and he can get back there and win one of those $20,000 races.
"He ran a couple of placings in them earlier in the season, so he was knocking on the door.
"He did win one at Melton one night, but it wasn't an M0, it was a country race.
"He's definitely got some ability. He raced in the Charlton Cup out of his grade and went very well.
"He did a bit of work out three-wide and didn't finish far off them."
Meanwhile, there was success for Bendigo drivers and trainers at Kilmore on Wednesday night.
Ellen Tormey scored a driving double with wins aboard her own horse Shaq in the three-year-old NR 48 to 55 and Dont Care for Kate Hargreaves in the two-year-old event, while Tayla French continued her amazing run in the sulky by notching her ninth winner of the month on the Chris Svanosio-trained Forever Kronos.
Don't Care, by Used To Me Fra out of My Dreamweaver, was making his first race start and did well to recover after being inconvenienced at the start, to narrowly defeat the Svanosio-trained and driven favourite Watch And Act.
Racing returns to Lord's Raceway tonight (Thursday), with the first of eight races at 5.12pm.
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