Jockey Terry Treichel celebrated his 34th birthday in style with a quality ride where Crackin’ Crown weaved his way through the field to finish first past the post.

Fresh from recovering from a cracked foot sustained following his maiden victory at the same track last November, the Peter Sinclair-trained gelding held-off Mount Annan and Impella over 1300 metres.

“It was part of our plan to make sure he stayed in the top three throughout the race and barrier two suited him,” Sinclair said.

“He stayed along the fence for a while and then at about the 600-metre mark Terry moved him into third and then when they went around the corner, he moved him up into second as they turned for home.

He put his nose in front with about 200 metres to go to notch-up his second successive win.

“I was very happy with him and he’ll get better over the longer distances,” Sinclair said.

“He’s a big, strong horse.”

In the following race over 1000 metres Sinclair’s seven-year-old gelding Russian Empire finished second behind Bombproof, trained by Inverell’s Scott Dixon.

“It was a tad disappointing.

“He went okay. He jumped early and led ,which is what I thought would happen, but he just couldn’t hang on,” he said.

“I thought he might have gone better, but it wasn’t to be.”

Race club president Anthony Diprose said a healthy crowd of about 500 turned up and enjoyed a day of high quality racing.

“It was a really good crowd and a young crowd too, which was great to see,” he said.

Despite other race meetings being held yesterday and over the Easter break Diprose said the fields held up well.

The day concluded with a remarkable victory for 13-year-old gelding Star of Universe who registered its 21st win in its 180th start.