Inside Racing | Race date change for Terang

With the Woodford meeting to be run at Warrnambool on December 31 (Thursday), Terang with the support of Racing Victoria has opted not to run on the Friday and instead be the sole provincial meeting on Saturday.

This means Terang will host the time-honoured Peter Blank Sprint, running alongside the race card at Caulfield.

Club manager Karen Van Kempen said the switch in dates is only for one year.

"Racing Victoria has Caulfield racing on January 2, but they had no provincial meeting listed for the day," Van Kempen said.

"They asked if we were interested in switching dates and we took up the option. It'll only be for the one year. We'll be the only country meeting in Victoria for the day. The switch gives us an extra day break away from the Woodford Cup meeting, which will be run on December 31. We're not sure if crowds will be allowed to the day, but we're hopeful that owners will be permitted to attend."

Van Kempen said she expected the meeting to have financial benefits for the racing industry.

"It should be a great day," she said. "It'll be interesting to see how the betting transpires for the day. Mortlake's annual cup meeting is usually run on Derby Day but this year it was changed to the Sunday. The betting turnover for the day last year was $3.5 million - this year it was more than $10 million, which is an incredible result. We would be hoping our betting figures increase on previous turnover for the meeting."

Winners are grinners and Warrnambool trainer Daniel Bowman has a wide grin on his face after training five winners from his last 13 runners.

Bowman's great run of winners started with Luxitorah and Culily Ace at Mortlake. Barcelona Rock was successful at Warrnambool while Ocean Beyond won at Geelong and the week finished on a high note with Justaroundnight winning at Penola.

Bowman said the winners are a reward for his hard-working staff.

"We had a quiet time there for a few months but racing tends to go like that," he said. "There's always highs and lows. We've got our systems in place and all our staff do wonderful jobs. We've got some very nice young horses who have needed time in the stable and they're just coming through now. It was a very good debut win by Ocean Beyond. He had trialled up well and we were confident he would run well. I picked him out at the New Zealand Ready To Run sales last year. I just liked his action. I think there's a lot more improvement in him. We may give him one more run and then give him a break but we'll just wait and see before finalising plans."

Barcelona Rock defeated Perfect Zed and Master Bartholdi at his debut in an 1100 metre maiden at Warrnambool last Friday.

"I picked him out at an Inglis Ready To Run Sale and purchased him for $38,000," he said.

"He's going to develop into a nice horse with a bit of time. I think Ocean Beyond and Barcelona Rock will develop into horses that will appreciate races in the 1400 to 1600 metre range."

Bowman's group one winner Begood Toya Mother is in the spelling paddock and will resume racing in the New Year.

Apprentice jockey Laura Lafferty rode the biggest winner of her short career in guiding the Patrick Payne trained Portland Jimmy to victory in the $70,000 Ararat Cup on Sunday.

Lafferty, 22, has only been riding for 13 months and ridden 48 winners. She claims two kilograms in the country and that will be reduced to 1.5kgs after riding two more winners.

The talented sportswoman said Payne had been a great supporter and mentor for her.

"Patrick was a champion jockey and is now doing the same as a trainer," Lafferty said. "It's a great result to ride the cup winner for Patrick. I'm pretty familiar with the traits of Portland Jimmy because I ride him in a bit of work. I usually go up and ride trackwork at Patrick's for a few days in the week. I also ride work at Caulfield and I mix that in with going back home to Warrnambool to ride work every fortnight or so, it all depends where I'm riding at during that week."

Jockeys face plenty of off-track challenges, with the biggest one driving to race meetings across Victoria.

"Driving to race meetings is one of the hardest things to do," she said. "I've driven just over 120,000 kilometres in 13 months. It all gets demanding with all the driving to meetings and you might only have the one ride but you've got to go. I love being a jockey, especially after you're ridden a winner or two."

Lafferty rode at Ararat on Sunday before travelling to Moe for four rides on Monday.

Five-year-old galloper Wil John raced into calculations for a start in the $300,000 Jericho Cup at Warrnambool on November 29, after winning at Ararat on Sunday.

Wil John, trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, won a benchmark 70 over 3800 metres on Sunday and in doing so, picked up three points for the rich flat race over 4600 metres later this month. Two guaranteed start races for the Jericho Cup will be run at Moonee Valley on Friday night and Canberra on Sunday.