BY LACHLAN HARPER (Central Western Daily - 16 January 2023)

For Mick Mulholland's Sea of Flames, Orange is becoming a happy hunting ground after the gelding ticked off another win at Towac Park on Sunday.

The Cowra Cup meeting was moved from Cowra due to the race track still recovering from the damage caused by the floods and Racing NSW had deemed the facility unsuitable to host the meeting.

Jumping from barrier 6, the Dubbo-based gelding started strong before staying in the hunt until the home straight where jockey Jake Barrett went to work.

Pushing wide, Sea of Flames was able to hold off a challenge from Milamoo to win the Cowra Cup.

Mulholland said the strategy on the straight was always the plan.

"Yeah (it was), we went inside in the Japan Cup (with Cheptegei) but it was just off for the last part," he said.

The victory, worth $17,325, put another trophy in Mulholland's cabinet after the trainer won the Gilgandra Cup earlier this month.

Admiring the sliverware from afar, Mulholland expressed delight at securing another win having stated his intention for success at the Cowra Cup after his Gilgandra victory.

"It's great, it goes with a few other cups I've won, (I thought) I'd get one today surely," he said.

Sea of Flames' form at Towac now reads one place and two victories with Mulholland commenting that his gelding was suited to the Soft 5 offered up.

"It won well here a few weeks ago, he likes these sort of tracks," he said.

For Cowra Jockey Club president Peter Ford, a full event of racing at Towac was nothing more than a relief for him after the devastating few months his club had suffered, along with problems Racing Orange has also encountered.

"Racing NSW decided to send the event to Orange and I'm happy about that because they suffered some losses last year and lost a few meetings and this makes up for it in some way," he said.

"(Racing Orange general manager) Bree (McMinn) is a good operator here and runs a good show with the Orange Turf Club so I'm relieved, there was good results, good racing and a decent crowd."

Mr Ford added there's still significant repairs ahead for his club before racing starts there again.

"We're laying turf tomorrow, 50 metres either way of the winning post was severely damaged so that's been ripped up and there's new turf going down. That's got to establish some root growth before we can even think about racing on it, so we're probably 3-4 months away," he said.

"We have a meeting late in February ... I'm pretty sure it'll be transferred to another track and likely it'll be Orange."

In the other results from Sunday, former Orange-based trainer Gary Portelli was first cab off the rank with Fine Vintage winning in Race 1.

Brett Robb's Sizzle Minizzle won Race 2, before Mike Van Gestel's Titan Star won by a nose in the following event. Bjorn Baker ticked his first win of the day off with Salisano in race 4 while Gulgong based Barry The Poet won in race 5 for Brett Thompson.

Bathurst's Dean Marfin had a win in the Japan Cup with Whatsin before the day was rounded off by a local win after How's It Kev delivered victory for Alison Smith.

‍