Archard accepts gift with glee

If Rhys Archard has learnt one lesson better than most in racing; it is to never look a gift horse in the mouth.Especially when the gift is a horse.Free.Not just to train, but to own.But if the gift is a six-year-old gelding called Reggae Roc, with a track record of 31 starts for three wins and three thirds (all on country tracks) you might be excused for thinking someone was having a lend of you.However, just a few weeks and two starts later the previous owners must have been searching for a mirror — to have a long hard look at themselves.After working with the horse for a few weeks, Archard tried jockey Rhys McLeod for the first time, entering his freebie in a 1450 m race at Tatura on August 15.Running second in a 10-horse field, Archard suddenly thought he might actually be on a winner.And on Saturday he was, with McLeod back in the saddle for a 1590 m event at Wangaratta.“I’d never worked with Rhys before, but he did a good job at Tat, so I offered him the ride again at Wangaratta,” Archard said.“The previous owners and trainer had been trying to run Reggae Roc from off the pace and coming home late, but our plan was to try and get him up behind the speed.“Unfortunately he doesn’t have great gate speed, but with a good barrier draw at the weekend had managed to finish midfield when they settled.”Halfway through the race the field was strung out like Brown’s cows, with Reggae Roc closer to the tail than the head of the field.But McLeod was showing a lot of patience and with the field bunching on the turn for home he opted to swing out beyond the middle of the track to start his run.“The track was a heavy nine and seriously cut up by the time our horse ran in (the $22,000 Mason Park Handicap) the last of the day,” Archard said.“And while he wasn’t where we planned, the draw initially did help him be a few lengths closer to the leaders and Rhys rode a really smart ride and where he went out in the middle of the track proved to be exactly the right place to make a run.“I knew it was a bit of a step up to the mile, but his first run for me at Tatura convinced me he would be thereabouts on Saturday.”His previous two runs over 2000 m had finished in a ninth out of 10 and a ninth from 12 and at the mile he has been pretty impressive and when he started coming home down the middle of the track, everyone else seemed to be going up and down on the spot with the heavy going.The win means (except for training time) Archard has received $15,840 in prizemoney — less jockey percentages — for free.But Archard concedes his new horse is destined for a country career — and preferably on wet tracks.Although he said Reggae Roc loved the big, wide Wangaratta track better than the tight surrounds of Tatura or Echuca, he agreed the horse only had a bush career ahead; almost certain to never grace a track in town — not even a Sandown or Valley midweek meeting.“I’ll see how he pulls up after Saturday’s win and then look around for another wet track,” Archard said.“There are some good late spring rains on tracks between Wagga and Albury-Wodonga, so we might look at some of those.”Another unknown from the weekend was when the horse could/should be spelled. Its last decent break was the first five months of last year.The other unknown from Saturday will never be known — whether Echuca’s Gwenda Johnstone could have also picked up a Saturday win.Her horse Pravro was set for a start in the seventh of the day at Moonee Valley — the $125,000 BM90 over 1200 m.But the meeting was abandoned after race five when virtually everyone connected with the day agreed the track was unsafe after Jittery Jack's all-the-way victory in race five, with almost 35 lengths between first and last in the seven-horse field.