Success doesn’t come much sweeter than the win Lex and Sally Crosby celebrated on Monday.
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Their pacer Im With Lexy claimed the $30,000 Lexus of Parramatta Canola Cup at the prestigious annual Eugowra harness race meeting.
That would have been thrill enough for Lex: president of the Eugowra Harness Racing Club for nine years to 2015, he has played no small part in making the award-winning meeting what it is today.
But it was even better to win with a descendant of the first horse Mr Crosby’s father Jim purchased 62 years ago.
The four-year-old mare who won on Monday is the eighth generation owned and bred by the Crosby family.
And they have long campaigned for the coveted Cup day feature race: Im With Lexy’s grandmother Lexy Lobell got as close as winning her heat in 2003.
Twenty-four hours on from their long weekend victory, the owner still struggled to find the words to describe how it felt.
“It’s a great thrill,” he said. “Everybody wants to win that race – it’s spoken about all over Australia.
“To be part of the day, to have a runner in the Cup, is a privilege. To actually win ...”
The field on Monday has been described as arguably the best quality field in the history of the feature – a brilliant outcome after the 2016 meeting was flooded out.
Im With Lexy, one of only three Australian-bred finalists, was second favourite at $5.40 at the start of the race.
“I think it was the weight of the Eugowra dollars, as she opened fourth or fifth,” Mr Crosby said.
Watching the race was – as always – a nervous affair for the owners, but trainer / driver Bernie Hewitt hadn’t spent three months preparing this horse for this race for no reason.
They fought hard to go straight to the front of the field.
“Once she got that lead, I knew she’d be hard to beat,” Mr Crosby said.
And while it was close at the finish line, the Crosbys held high the Cup and then headed to Eugowra’s Central Hotel to celebrate.
“People were really interested in having a photo with the Cup, having a sip from it,” Mr Crosby said. “Usually the Cup is gone from town as soon as the races are over.”
The locals’ interest in the Cup was a big part of what made the night so special – and the Crosbys are no strangers to harness racing success.
Im With Lexy’s half sister Read About Lexy was NSW Harness Racing’s three-year-old of the year, after breaking the mile record for a two-year-old filly.
Fashions on the field page 9, more on the race on page 24.
