Raise a glass to Beach Day and Hurrell

Bruce Stewart Journalist

Although he wasn’t happy at being three wide, driver Mark Hurrell secured what proved to be the winning run for Beach Day, (Sunshine Beach) duly winning the $40,000 Group Three Kubala Seeds Champagne Stakes at Wyndham today.

Hurrell got onto the back of an improving Just Like Jagger and she gave Beach Day cover for the majority of the second half of the race.

“It wasn’t ideal, but at least I had that little bit of cover,” Hurrell said.

When some of the backmarkers started to improve at the 400, Hurrell peeled his mare five wide and she quickly stormed to the lead, but the race wasn’t over. Beach Day had to withstand an inside run from Hayley Jaccka and a storming home Ruby Roe down the outside.

“She had to be brave with that sort of run, and she was.”

At the end of the race, Beach Day had a half a head to share over Ruby Roe with a neck back to Hayley Jaccka in third.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d won it but I thought I might have. You’ve got horses like Ruby Roe off your back and sprinting up, but to my mare’s credit she dug in real deep to fend them off. It was a thrilling result.”

In what was the finish of the day, just four lengths covered the first eight runners home.

Beach Day is owned by Greg and Vicky Hunter. Greg trained the mare up until the beginning of the year, before Craig Ferguson took over.

The win today was the mare’s nineth and second for Ferguson as the trainer.

“She’s a great mare and people don’t realise how good she is. She can stay and has got a wicked turn of foot.

Hurrell has driven Beach Day in nine of those wins. He has now driven eleven winners for the Hunters.

“Greg has been great to me. He’s a Wyndham man through and through. Craig was his driver before me and before that Snow McLellan. He’s been my go to guy for a number of years and I was thrilled to win a race like that for him.”

As it was at Gore just over a week ago, Beach Day denied Nathan Williamson (Ruby Roe) of his first win after returning to race day driving.

Hurrell said, “He’ll be starting to hate me (laughter). His time will come. I was just thrilled for my connections. They’ve had a tough ride latterly and the win will be a good tonic for them.”

Results indicate that somewhere down the line there could be a Group One win in Beach Day.

“She’s good enough to get one. She’s a funny horse. She doesn’t get round Addington that well. I know she won up there a couple of times last year, but she seems to brush a knee and go rough. She goes better round Invercargill than she does up there.”

Beach Day is an eighth generation product of the famous First Water family, bred from by the Hunter family since 1928.

It was a good day for members of the Wyndham HRC committee with Picasso, Franco Sinatra, Beach Day and Bettor Way all owned by members of the committee.