Hanger-over brewing after Beer’s Echuca win

Mitch Beer (2nd from left) and Teo Nugent (right) celebrate with connections after Hanger's Echuca Cup

It was only moments after Mitch Beer had arrived at Echuca for the Cup Day program that he thought his trip would be a wasted one.

The Albury trainer arrived with New Zealand recruit Hanger (NZ) (O’Reilly), a horse he thought could win the $100,000 Moama Bowling Club Echuca Cup, but one he knew was at his best on tracks with the sting out.

Beer was pleasantly surprised to see the five-year-old drive late to score victory in the 1400-metre event.

“We walked in and we got a text message that the track had been upgraded to a (Good) 4 and I said to (sister and racing manager) Ash, ‘we should scratch this horse’,” he said with a laugh.

“I just want to look after him. It’s so hard to get good-quality horses and we treat him like a Group horse.”

The son of O’Reilly turned in a performance that backed up the trainer’s belief to score a fighting win, the fifth of his 22-start career.

Hanger, who started $12, scored by three-quarters-of-a-length from Easy Beast ($7) with $2.60 favourite Ashlor, who was chasing a second country feature in as many weeks, close up in third position.

“He’s a horse that does hit a flat spot every run he has, but he’s a horse that loves a wet track as well,” winning jockey Teo Nugent said.

“As the track was drying out through the day, that was my only concern, but I can’t wait to see him out to a mile. There’s a lot of potential there.”

Story: Racing.com

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