Knuckey rides Elafella to Broome Cup win

It’s over for another season, but the Broome Cup meeting last weekend saw racegoers turn out in their thousands to share an amazing day of racing.

There was a racing double to trainer Darryn Pateman, cementing his place as leading trainer for the year; a training treble, for Peter Farrell on his birthday; and lucky rides for Peter Knuckey, Kyra Yuill and Chris Nicoll, who each won races that were forgone by Jessica Valenti, who was not able to participate on the day.

Had Valenti won those events, she would have swept to the lead in the Jockeys’ Premiership.

Instead Austen Galati took out that honour. Such are the fortunes of racing.

The big Cup race was the event that brought the crowd to its feet.

Pre post favourite True Attraction faced a huge task in carrying 65.5kg, while the second favourite Hezazeb, which had recently won the Roebourne and Port Hedland cups, drew wide.

Veteran jockey Peter Knuckey, who had never ridden in a Broome Cup, was engaged to ride Pilbara trained Elafella.

Knuckey had earlier won the opening race, and had gained a feel for the track.

When the barriers opened, the field brought the crowd up as they charged down the home straight with a lap to go.

Once into the back straight Hezazeb was wide on the track, True Attraction appeared to be coasting at the rear of the field, and Elafella was midfield on the rails.

When heads turned for home Hezazeb and Elafella put in their runs, but Knuckey drew clear and went on to win by two lengths from Powerful and outsider Singleton Park.

Hezazeb finished fifth and True Attraction found the weight too much and crossed the line at the rear of the field.

Earlier in the week, Ladies’ Day attracted a colourful crowd, which saw the feature race, the Broome Sprint won by the favourite Apple Schnapps.

Trainers now take their horses south, for the Newman, Gascoyne and Carnarvon Cup meetings.