By Jonny Turner
Trainer-driver Jonny Cox shored up his place in his family’s good books with a winning double at Winton on Thursday.
Wins with In Chevron We Trust and Folklore made the long haul from Canterbury to his former home track worthwhile and it also lead to a quick return for a group of his stable owners.
Folklore scored a deserved win for Cox’s aunty and uncle, Ian and Nola Wilson, when she zipped home to win race 10.
And the 5yr-old showed some versatility in doing it.
“The race suited her after running in to Robert Dunn’s two fillies [Spellbound and Need You Now] a couple of times at Addington,” Cox said.
“I had to use her a bit to get to the front, which is not normally her go, and that was good.”
“But, once she got to outside the leader she got to the top easy enough and to be honest she only really had to run a quarter [400m] to win.”
Folklore dashed her last 400m in 27.6sec to score by a length and a quarter over Maximus Prost in her 2400m mobile victory.
Cox used vastly different circumstances behind In Chevron We Trust over the same trip in race 4.
But, it ended in the same result and also scored another win for one of the trainer-driver’s family members.
There were no mid race moves and no zipping home when a hot pace set up a sizzling time for rating 40-48 pacers in 2-56.8.
With a patient drive, Cox gave In Chevron We Trust a cold shot at the leaders and the 4yr-old delivered with a half-length to spare on runner-up Petrea Bromac.
“There was a lot of speed on and everything worked out for him really well,” Cox said.
“The last quarter [400m] was about the slowest of the race.”
“But he still had to be good enough to do it and it was a nice effort.”
The win came after Cox chanced his arm to buy the horse out of Ken Barron’s stable.
“I was just at Addington one night and the horse had run down the track and I wandered over to Ken and asked if he was for sale.”
“He was meant to be sold, but that deal fell through and we managed to get him.”
In Chevron We Trust is now raced by Cox’s sister, Jo Nicholas, alongside Andrew Fitzgerald and Ollie O’Connor.
Another Canterbury pacer made the trip to Winton worthwhile on Thursday.
Burlington started his season in style when winning race 9 for trainer Brent White and driver Stephen McNally.
McNally managed to find the trail for the 5yr-old after blasting him out of barrier 8.
Burlington dashed has last 400m in 27.3sec to score over Rocknroll King, who had to settle for his fourth consecutive second placing.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
