Horsham’s Rod Carberry has been training horses for 30 years but enjoyed one of his biggest thrills at the trots yesterday.
The 52-year-old horseman produced a race-to-race double at his home track with Tommaso (by Union Guy out of Elevensecrets) and Bou Chard (by Live Or Die out of Doutzen) winning the last two races, the pair scoring at odds of $90.10 and $38.10 respectively.
Tommaso’s journey to the winner’s stall has been particularly remarkable.
Followers may have noted the five-year-old appears to hang in his races. Stewards have certainly quizzed Carberry to this point over the journey.
However, Carberry says the gelding runs straight but twists his head to the side due to a serious injury suffered as a foal.
“I bought him as a three-year-old and as a foal he’d been put over a fence by a kangaroo. They must have been fighting, and as a result of that he broke his neck,” Carberry said.
“If you watch his run he twists his head to the side occasionally. The drivers all say he runs straight though. I’ve had to explain that to the stewards a few times with him that he doesn’t actually hang.”
Tommaso was driven superbly by underrated concession reinswoman Denbeigh Wade yesterday, the 23-year-old bringing up her 25th race win on the almost 100-1 pop.
“It was a great drive, a fantastic effort by Denbeigh,” Carberry said.
“He paid $94 because he didn’t really have a chance in that field. The horse galloping (Tellus Rodney) was a bonus, but that’s racing, and Denbeigh drove him a treat.”
Wade didn’t take long to angle away from the markers early from barrier eight when Hooper Road commenced a run wider, tracking up in the running line before angling into the clear at the home bend.
Once Tommaso saw daylight he chased down the bigger Prince Of Zanzibar to register a head victory in a mile rate of 1:57.5 for the 1700-metre trip.
WATCH TOMMASO STICK HIS HEAD OUT TO WIN AT BIG ODDS
“This time of year if we can keep him happy we can hopefully pick up another win or two with him,” Carberry said.
Carberry’s other winner, Bou Chard, was driven by in-form Aaron Dunn, who has amazingly won with seven of his last nine drives.
“Aaron’s going pretty good isn’t he,” Carberry said. “He’s very calm and cool in races.”
Bou Chard was having his second run since joining Carberry’s camp and the trainer rates the filly highly.
“She’s had a few back problems so she’s taken a bit of time to put it all together in her races, but yesterday Aaron didn’t even pull the plugs… he was probably too busy steering her. She’s still got a lot to learn. I really like her.”
BOU CHARD MAKES IT A CARBERRY DOUBLE
Bou Chard sat leader’s back before using the sprint lane to notch a winning mile ate of 2:02.5 over the 2200m trip.
As no punters found the Carberry running double $1117.79 has jackpotted with TAB.com.au to tonight’s Races 1 and 2 running double at Melton.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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