Image: Racing Photography.
It was the Connie Greig show at Trangie on Saturday, with NSW’s picnic queen winning four of five races, including the feature, on the Macquarie Picnic Racing Club program.
The main event was the $8000 Macquarie Picnic Cup (1400m), which was being run for the first time since 2023 due to recent abandonments.
Greig won that edition with Blackhill Kitty (Breanna Bourke), and on Saturday defended her crown with The Bentley ($2.60), ridden to victory by Leandro Ribeiro.
It was a thrilling result, as the Dubbo galloper carried the top weight of 72kg and held off race favourite and Kieren Hazelton-trained Cooma Hut (Skye Regan, $2.20) by 0.38 of a length.
A picture of consistency, The Bentley won a $50,000 Super Maiden at Tamworth earlier this year, and since arriving at Greig’s stables has started 16 times, winning on four occasions, placing an additional nine times, and never finishing further back than fourth while earning connections $68,725.
It was a huge day at Trangie for Greig, who has trained 61 winners in 2025/26, and she kicked things off as Trigoso (Leandro Ribeiro, $3) carried 70.5kg to a 0.62-length victory in the 1100m Class One Trophy Handicap.
You Count ($3) was then ridden to a comfortable 2.2-length victory by Amber Collins in the 800m Conditional Picnic Handicap, getting into the race with just 62.5kg following Collins’ claim.
Rounding out the winning quartet was Taxonomy (Amber Collins, $3.20), which caused an upset to beat the $1.60 favourite and Sharon Jeffries-trained Bawnaglen (Ash Boyd) by 0.2 of a length.
Jeffries did enjoy success earlier on the card as Ash Boyd rode Obsessive Nature ($2.70) to victory in the 800m Open Trophy Handicap.
The next NSW picnic meeting will be run and won at Cobar on Saturday, August 22.
