by Terry Neil
“THE Man from Uncle”- Chris Frisby – celebrated his homecoming after a successful working holiday in Queensland with a win by Uncle Ryan in the feature Western Districts Sapling Stakes at Bathurst on Wednesday.
Driven by his son Anthony, the Dawn Ofa New Day gelding worked to the death mid-race and applied plenty of pressure over the last half before coming away from filly Alex Pollizzi over the closing stages to record a meritorious win.
It was his third successive win in a hectic 17 days, the previous ones celebrated at Parkes and Bathurst.
He rated a respectable 2:00.6 in his first attempt at the testing 2260 metres trip, using a moderate lead and first quarter time to get up outside the leader, before final quarters of 29.2 and 28.5 seconds to assert his authority.
Anthony Frisby’s fine judgement earned him racecaller Anthony Manton’s Drive of the Night award.
Chris Frisby, part-owner and trainer, is quite chuffed by the gelding’s winning run, and his improvement this time in.
“He didn’t show much at all around Crown time, and we decided to geld him and put him out for a good break. A while later, I commented to Anthony how good he looked, and suggested we get him back in to see if we could get a win before the end of the season.
Now he’s won three in a row. I can’t believe how much he’s improved!”
When it was suggested to Frisby that his brother-in-law Steve Turnbull had picked up a Sapling Stakes – the NSW edition, at Harold Park – with a handy youngster named Smooth Satin, and that he might look forward to similar success in the Derby, Chariots, Miracle Mile and Inter-Dom, he was rendered speechless, for one of the few times in his life!
Chris names most of his horses with an “uncle” or “aunty” prefix, and a few of them are actually relatives. The dam of the Sapling winner, for instance, was a Sealed N Delivered mare named Aunty Dawn, who won seven races, including three at the old Bathurst Showgrounds track.
Amanda Turnbull put her stamp on the meeting by leading throughout in the opening races, with Our Novak NZ – his second win in six Aussie starts – and with her father’s runner, the unhoppled mare Sportygal, which moved to the lead in the Horse of the Year premiership with just one meeting remaining.
Steve made it a training double when Casino Tommy (John O’Shea) held on in a desperate finish- margins of just a half-head to Gotta Bewitched and Intransit- in the fast class sprint, the last half of 56.5s no place for the faint-hearted.
Grand-dads played roles in the remaining three wins.
Satellite Village led throughout in conditioned class to give young Oberon reinsman Justin Reynolds his fifth win, and it was a very proud grandfather Russell Reynolds, the breeder-owner- trainer, who was on hand to lead in the winner.
Gunna Cullect scored a tough win from the death for Doug Hewitt and trainer Bernie Hewitt in C0 grade. Doug recalled that the three-year-old’s dam Plain Georgie, trained on their Georges Plains property, had raced very successfully – she won 13 races and over $50K in stakes- for his grand-dad Pete Woods.
Cherry Sweet Peach defied the racing pattern of the night by coming from mid-field with a barnstorming finish for Emma Turnbull to easily win the 3YO sprint that closed the meeting. It was a timely win for Young-based trainer Nathan Hoy, who spoke of the recent passing of his grandfather Ron Hoy, one of his strongest supporters.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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