Local trainers played the home advantage at Hawkesbury Race Club on Tuesday in what proved to be heavy conditions following an early-morning downpour.
Brad Widdup kicked off the local success in the Blake's Marine Provincial and Country Maiden Handicap (1100m), with two-year-old Night Flyer taking out race one ahead of the Matt Vella-trained Our Blue Moon and Terry Croft's Foxy Rocket.
It was an easy win for the All Too Hard filly, who was bred at and races for Vinery Stud, on the heavy nine track with Widdup's brother-in-law Christian Reith on board.
The resuming Cazonet managed a third place in race two, the XXXX Gold Maiden Plate over 1100m, for Godolphin's Osborne Park team, racing as a gelding and in blinkers for the first time.
Godolphin trainer James Cummings then enjoyed further success in the third, the Hawkesbury Gazette two-year-old Maiden Handicap run over 1300m, with Knickpoint bringing home the win on debut ahead of father Anthony Cummings' Strange Charm.
"He's a horse that we've been patient with that looks like he could get up over a bit of ground," James Cummings told the Gazette.
"But he's got a little bit of style about him and we were hopeful that he was easily capable of being competitive, particularly 1300m on debut on a track that gives him the opportunity to balance up and hit the line well."
Cummings spoke highly of the Hawkesbury track, saying Tuesday's meet was "another day in paradise" for the Blue Army.
"A couple of times we've brought our horses out here just to enjoy the surrounds and it's helped bring them on," he said.
"We're a supporting neighbour, one of the locals here with the Agnes Banks training facility of Osborne Park for Sheikh Mohammed.
"It's nice to bring horses here to compete in the premiership. We won it last year and we're hoping we can go close again this year."
He also lauded the investment Hawkesbury Race Club had put into the sport for the region with the installation of the Polytrack surface, opened last year.
"Investing in the care and training of the racehorses is all about investing in the future, and I think it's definitely the way forward," Cummings said.
"We have our own Polytrack and Polytracks are popular all over the world, in fact I have just recently returned from Newmarket and they have 20 miles of Polytracks over 2500 acres.
"There's no training centre more convinced of the virtues of that track than Newmarket and the results of those horses speak for themselves, particularly when they might come off the plane and race here.
"When we see horses like [Godolphin-trained] Hartnell that have been brought up on tracks like that, you get to know what sort of benefit they can bring to the table."
The next meeting at Hawkesbury Race Club will be held on Thursday, July 4.
