THEY can take a race meeting out of Mildura, but you can't stop the dominance of Bendigo's trainers and drivers in the northern part of the state.
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With the Mildura Recreation Reserve, encompassing the City Oval Paceway, being converted to a COVID-19 testing station this week following a pair of positive cases in the border town, Thursday night's scheduled meeting was transferred to Swan Hill.
Used to experiencing plenty of success at Mildura, the meeting's status as 'Mildura at Swan Hill' did not stop a crop of this region's finest trainers and drivers from savouring their usual level of success.
If anything, they were even more prolific than normal.
An even dozen races yielded a commanding 10 driving and six training wins, highlighted by trebles to the state's leading trainer Julie Douglas and Charlton's rising sulky star Ryan Sanderson.
Enjoying a third-straight career-best season, Shelbourne trainer Kate Hargreaves notched a double, as did young driver Jack Laugher.
A remarkable combined haul included single wins to Charlton trainer Shane Sanderson with Good Guy Mack and drivers Ellen Tormey, Jayden Brewin, Neil McCallum, Shannon O'Sullivan and Alex Ashwood.
Personal accomplishments aside, the story of the night was undoubtedly the Douglas-trained Ozzie Battler's upset win over Bernie Winkle in the night's fast-class race.
Bernie Winkle, driven by Ellen Tormey, was chasing his seventh-straight win and 11th in 12 starts, but was no match on this occasion for Ozzie Battler, driven by Jack Laugher, who controlled the race out in front with a leisurely pace, and had plenty in reserve in the straight to be able to hold out his stable-mate.
It was an all Douglas-trained trifecta in the small field of five, with Bernie Winkle finishing second ahead of Pocket Thedeal.
Ozzie Battler's win was the son of Sunshine Beach and Miss Laura Jane's 10th in 77 career starts and his first in 15 starts dating back to his victory at Mildura on March 5.
Another big night for the Strathfieldsaye trainer included wins with Junior Feelgood and Khaki Nui, who added to their current impressive winning streaks.
The six-year-old gelding Junior Feelgood (Tormey) made it three wins in seven days following victories at Melton last Friday and Maryborough on Monday, while Khaki Nui (Laugher) made it four-straight since his arrival in Australia, after previous wins at Shepparton and two at Mildura.
The Douglas stable has now racked up an incredible 20 wins in the month of July.
Trainer Hargreaves boosted her monthly win total to nine with victories to Call Me Diva and stable newcomer Kick It To Jack (Ashwood).
A winning treble for Sanderson included victories for Irymple trainers Boris Devcic (Wild Man) and Allan MacDonald (Eezee Street) and one for his father Shane, giving him 35 wins for the season.
Bendigo region July leaders:
Training wins: Julie Douglas (20); Kate Hargreaves (9); John Tormey (5), Jim O'Sullivan, Leigh Graham (3).
Driving wins: Jack Laugher (14); Ellen Tormey (11), Glenn Douglas (11); Alex Ashwood (7), Ryan Sanderson (6).
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