SOME trainers might have been disappointed to see the rain fall late last week at Wangaratta, but Bendigo's Daryn Drust wasn't one of them.
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It's a case of 'the wetter the better' for his seven-year-old gelding Cooter Cha Cha, who duly notched up his fifth career win on the heavy 9 in a 2000m benchmark 58 on Saturday.
All four of his previous wins have come on a soft 6 or worse.
It was a more than timely win for Cooter Cha Cha, whose rating had dropped to 55 following a career-high of 61 after his last win at Horsham in May.
"He put in some pretty bad runs after that win, to the point we turned up to the races not knowing what horse - good or bad - was going to turn up on the day," Drust said.
"He's quite a tricky fellow, always has been, but he put his best foot forward again.
"We were happy it was a heavy 9, the horse relishes those conditions. The colder and wetter it is the more he seems to enjoy it.
"And it was a perfectly executed ride too by Arron Lynch.
"We (trainers) can only do so much to have a horse ready to race, but he rode him well.
"He didn't get out as early as we would have liked as he had two on the outside of him, but when he did get out he executed it to perfection."
It was Lynch's first ride for Drust, and unlikely to be his last.
So impressed was the Bendigo trainer, he hopes to have the 30-year-old aboard when he and Cooter Cha Cha venture back to Wangaratta early next month.
"Saturday was the day he really had to step up," Drust said.
"He was well down in the ratings, had he failed on Saturday, he would have dropped another point or two and we would have struck trouble getting a run with him.
"He bounced back out to a 59 rating, so there's another 2000m event at Wangaratta for him on September 7.
"He'll go up in weight a bit, but not too much - he'll probably carry 61.5 and I'm 99 per cent sure Arron will have the ride on him again."
Drust, who is employed part-time as a maintenance and gardens worker at The Great Stupa, has just three horses in work, two of them unraced, including a three-year-old colt by Delightful Choice, the same sire as Cooter Cha Cha.
His three-year-old filly Luckytobehere is expected to have a jump-out in two weeks' time.
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