HEAVY morning rain on Wednesday did little to dampen the enthusiasm of Parkes Harness Racing Club officials who were left with the comfort of knowing that the new crusher dust racing surface at the Showground Paceway would handle the inclement weather.
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And they were right believing that as there was even a sub two-minute performance posted on Wednesday night.
Track curators Darryle Rusten and Brett Hutchings can only be congratulated for their efforts and the men themselves admit that it is a huge learning curve to cope with as they look forward to heading to Sydney this weekend for a training seminar on the preparation of track surfaces being conducted by HRNSW which is something that is long overdue.
But Wednesday night belonged to one of the district's greatest ever horsemen, Steve Turnbull, who stole the show with a copybook drive to get Cullectomatic ($10.90) home first in the Western District Oaks (2040m).
Turnbull speared Cullectomatic out of barrier two in search of the lead before surrendering to fancied runner Fairy Dust to give his filly a cozy sit.
From there, the master reinsman sat patiently until rounding the home turn where he shunted his way into the clear to set sail after the leaders and Cullectomatic did the rest by knuckling down to the task to score by just under a metre.
Steve's daughter Amanda was aboard the runner-up Our Big Mumma ($5.10) which had to work hard in the death chair throughout and was gallant in defeat.
Favourite for the race, Condell Park filly Marion Keisker ($2.00), was given a dream run by Sydney reinsman Josh Willick and appeared to be a shade disappointing after she was given the run of the race, one out and one back.
She was beaten into third place and certainly had few excuses.
Part owners Ben Howard from Parkes and Mick Buckley from Bathurst were trackside representing the host of owners who race Cullectomatic and it would be fair to say that they were ecstatic at the win of the filly which they also bred.
Leading Riverina trainer Shaun Snudden was back in town on Wednesday night and he landed his usual winner when producing Starzzz In Order ($1.40 fav) to score first up in the Parkes Furniture One Pace (2040m).
Driven by former Victorian reinsman Leigh Sutton, Starzzz In Order led with ease and then ran his rivals ragged, particularly over the final 800 metres where he careered away to win by almost 24 metres.
Blue Chip Memories ($30.40, Michelle Crook) came from a mile back to grab second and is the horse to follow out of the meeting while Bolunga Babe ($55.60, Mark Hewitt) battled into third spot but was beaten by more than 33 metres.
