Barnes gets roos hopping at Keppel Park.

They’re talented horse people who with their equine companions keep our racing competitors safe at their workplace, the racetrack. Like a schoolteacher on playground duty, the Clerk of the Course is a safety net, and the jockeys and horses are their responsibility.

Mick Barnes has been clerking racetracks around Central Queensland for decades. Hence, it was no surprise when he saved the day at Yeppoon’s Keppel Park on Tuesday.

With the horses loaded for the Rockhampton Jockey Club QTIS Class 3 Plate for a 1000-metre dash, kangaroos threatened to disrupt the race when they hopped onto the track 250 metres from the winning post. There was little time for anyone to react but Barnes who was stationed at the starting gates, riding his horse Buck, sprang into action.

As the crowd watched on, race caller Russell Leonard broadcast that the roos would need to be removed before the race could start, Barnes was already halfway around the track.

He rounded up the two troublesome boomers and herded them off course. Buck spun around and Barnes dashed him down the straight past the winning post to the clapping and cheers of the spectators.

About 30 minutes later the jockey protector was on the job again.

Before the horses went out for race seven Barnes gathered up his stockwhip, mounted Buck, and took off like the Man from Snowy River. With a few quick cracks, the roos scattered again clearing the track for racing to continue.

While Barnes got the biggest admiration on the day some thoroughbred stars jumped from the barriers. Probably none more impressive than the galloper that won the race when Barnes cleared the way. Last Ditch Effort was having its second start for Rockhampton trainer John Wigginton and won like a galloper with a big future. A former Sydneysider, Last Ditch Effort has now raced twice this month at Yeppoon, for his only two starts for Wigginton and has won both. Ryan Wiggins has been in the saddle both times. The chestnut five-year-old by Reward for Effort was impressive, far too classy for his opposition with the runner up, a Sunshine Coast winner, Tow The Line three lengths behind. There was another 1.25 lengths to Gotta Hero. “He is a very good horse,” Wigginton quipped as he walked to the winner’s stall. The trainer will likely travel south and find a suitable midweek metropolitan Class 3 race for his newfound star.

It was the second leg of a Yeppoon double for Wiggins who rode Central Queensland debutante Spirited Smile to win the Maiden Handicap (1200m). With just one minor placing from five country starts in Victoria, the Julieann Lancaster-trained gelding was sent out at double-figure odds but never looked like getting beaten. Wiggins parked behind the leaders and Spirited Smile had plenty of gas in the tank to finish the race off strongly and beat Neva Breeze and General Hippo. “People don’t realise how good Victorian country race form is,” Wiggins said. “I could have led on this horse and won just as easy.”

Sunshine Coast-based Townsville apprentice Leah Martyn scored her first Yeppoon win at her first time riding at the track. Apprenticed to Garnet Taylor, Martyn partnered with the Peter Fleming-trained Captain Fox to win the Prostate Cancer Awareness Open Handicap (1100m). In a driving finish the apprentice did well to coax the eight-year-old to the line for his ninth win, in a three-way finish over runner-up Janean and third-placed Letmeletgo. Captain Fox has raced all 53 starts in Central and North Queensland.

Another veteran galloper Mocambo continued its winning form for Fred Smith and Justin Stanley in the Graeme Dougan Memorial BM65 Handicap (1800m). The race favourite was a convincing winner. Stanley also rode a winning double steering the Clint Taylor trained Moet at Midnight to a clear cut all the way triumph in the TAB QTIS 3YO Maiden (1300m). The Mission gelding won by 2.25 lengths. Taylor said the galloper who was beaten at its Yeppoon debut earlier this month, had settled into his Berserker stable well and should pay its way from here on in.

The other winners on the seven-race RJC program included Amberinger, trained by Yeppoon local Allan Jenkinson. The trainer, who knows Keppel Park better than anyone else after looking after the course for a quarter of a century, bred the Brabinger filly from his mare Charcoal Melody. A big-spirited three-year-old, Amberinger was ridden by Jackson Murphy to win the John Milne Memorial QTIS 3YO Maiden (1000m). Callaghan Park trainer Jared Wehlow and jockey Ash Butler closed out the program winning a tight finish to the BM58 Handicap (1400m). The duo combined with Pierro four-year-old City Playboy who won the tussle from Our Turn Now and Roys Road.

• David Aldred RJC CEO