By Matt Markham
Take a bow, Blair Nathan Orange.
There are good weekends in harness racing. And then there’s the sort of weekend Orange has just enjoyed.
Off the back of five winners last weekend, the man dubbed The Postman backed that up with 10 winners in four days to move himself into a position where he can challenge John Dunn for the position of outright second on the national drivers’ premiership.
And he saved the best for last.
After trebles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Addington, Auckland and Winton, Orange was restricted to just the solitary winner at Sunday’s Cheviot Harness Racing Club meeting at Addington – but it was a decent winner.
He reined home impressive debutant, Delightful Memphis in the Group 3 $25,000 Sweet Lou Leonard Memorial Stakes for the two-year-old fillies.
The Mark Jones trained pacer backed up some strong trial form with her performance, which was a great result for the group of owners who purchased into her ownership just last week.
Originally owned by Wayne Higgs, the daughter of Bettor’s Delight was purchased at the Yearling Sales last year by Jones for $46,000.
Higgs retained a share in the filly and Jones, just last week, sold his share in the horse.
Included in those who put their hand up to take a share was former Black Cap and current cricket commentator, Simon Doull. It’s Doull’s first foray into harness racing ownership, but his involvement can only be seen as a positive outcome for the industry and Jones deserves a lot of credit.
Doull was joined in the ownership group by Pete and Debra Smith, who have raced horses out of the Jones barn before for good success. Also listed as owners are Sir Loins Ltd, Kaysan Farming Ltd and BM & JH Holdings Ltd.
Orange produced a peach of a drive to get the speedy filly home.
She settled back from a wide drawn before finding the one out one back spot. But when those behind him moved, Orange beat them to the punch and got around to parked before securing the one/one again.
That proved to be the winning of the race with Delighful Memphis close enough to run down Bonnie Joan and Renske B who looked likely to battle it out at the top of the straight.
The win took Orange to 68 winners for the season – just three shy of Dunn who is on 71 with his brother Dexter a further 64 wins ahead of him.
With a strong book of drives again this week at Alexandra Park, Orange can be expected to add to that tally.
Many of the horses he has won with over the past few weeks are more than capable of picking up at least another win before the season is finished.
And in the case of Delightful Memphis it should be even more than that.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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