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By Greg Prichard

Trainer Glen Milligan has been through a tough time with the recent floods and the clean-up continues, but so does business and he’s optimistic about the chances of his three runners at the Taree race meeting on Thursday.

Milligan will have Swamp Nation in race five, the Bakewell Haulage Corey Brown Cup Benchmark 82 Handicap over 1250 metres.

And later in the day he’ll have both Golden Honour and Punch One Out in the seventh and final race, the Stacks Law Firm Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1300 metres.

Swamp Nation will be backing up only four days after running a strong second in the Aberdeen Cup at Muswellbrook on Sunday.

“I nominated her for Taree thinking they might be off at Muswellbrook because of the wet weather, but things improved and she ran,” Milligan said.

“She ran very well, too, and pulled up really well, so I thought I’d wait and see and now we’re going ahead with the Taree race because she’s bright, she’s eaten well and it’s only a small field.

“We don’t work her much anyway because she’s only lightly-framed. She gets through the heavy and she likes this distance. I’d rather it was a dry track, but she’ll run well.

“Punch One Out is drawn bad and is badly weighted compared to Golden Honour, but he does handle the wet. Hopefully he can slot in somewhere and get a decent run.

“Golden Honour gets through the heavy as well and should be hard to beat. Matthew McGuren is a strong rider who will suit him and the horse is going well enough to win, that’s for sure.”

The bottom level of Milligan’s house and his stable, which are situated together at the Taree course, went under water during last month’s floods and he had to move his horses out in the middle of the night.

“Every box went at least a metre under and the ones out the back were two metres under,” Milligan said.

“And it got up to almost a metre in the downstairs part of the house, which we’ve never had before. My apprentice, Teighan (Worsnop), lives downstairs.

“By the time I got the horses out they were up to their bellies in water. (Fellow Taree trainer) Tony Ball and his family were terrific. Their stable is on higher ground and we moved some horses there.

“We were able to find other places for the horses in a hurry as well and I’m very grateful to the trainers and everyone else at Taree who have helped us.

“I had to truck a bunch of horses out to Tim McIntosh’s stable at Muswellbrook as well and Teighan has been staying out there to ride them work, so Tim’s been a great help as well.

“There’s a lot of people worse off than us, but we’ve still got a massive clean-up job to finish and we’ll keep doing that while we try to find a winner or two.”

Everyone involved with the Manning Valley Race Club has done a fantastic job to get Thursday’s meeting on so soon after the racecourse itself was under water during the floods. The surface was rated a Heavy 9 on Wednesday.

*First race 12.35pm. Gates open 11.30am. Full TAB and bookmaker facilities. The Turf Bistro and bar inside the Winning Post Function Centre open. Entry to the racecourse is free. See Manning Valley Race Club Facebook page for more details.

All the fields, form and replays for Thursday's Taree meeting