By Mac Henry
In little more than an hour at Ascot Park on Monday, Gore trainer Tony Stratford got the perfect result with Wayward Roc, Simply Dreaming and Jody Direen all successful.
“I’ve had three wins in a day before but never with only three runners,” Stratford said, “they were all nice horses with draws we could work with, and the best driver.”
The three were driven by Dexter Dunn who also won with Sundon’s Wish and Machie Mach to give him five from just seven drives.
Early fog in the city delayed the arrival of a number of drivers so changes were made for the first three races. Then a power issue affected TAB communications with the north and racing was delayed, eventually getting underway at the time race three had been scheduled to start.
Dunn had no engagements in the first two races and his drive in the third, Days Of Change, went to Mark Hurrell. The Steve Lock-trained five year old flashed home wide from back on the turn for fifth.
Wayward Roc is a recent addition to Stratford’s stable, having been purchased by his partner Dawn Wilson and Greg McLellan, brother of Wyndham trainer Brendon. The daughter of Attorney General scored her first win in March last year for hobby trainer Kevin Wood. Later in the year the six year old passed to Dawn Wilson’s parents Lindsay and Donna. Stratford has had the mare for her past three starts for two seconds and a win, all all with Dunn aboard.
Simply Dreaming is part-owned by Graeme Anderson, who trains on the beach south of Dunedin, and Matt Saunders, who trains on the grass at Tapanui.
“He’s only a two year old and they wanted him to get used to running on the all-weather so asked me to take him,” said Stratford, who trains on the race-course at Gore. “He’s going for a spell now, then he’ll come back for either Graeme or Matt He’s good enough to make a Supremacy horse.”
Jody Direen, bred and raced by Kenny Baynes, won a three-horse low-stake juvenile contest on debut at Gore in December 2015 in 2:02 for a mile. On Monday, as a three year old, she gained her second win (from eight starts) in 2:02.4 for 1700 metres, a mile rate of 1:55.9.
Phil Williamson produced November Guy to win the Grinaldi Lodge Mobile Trot in the hands of his son Matthew for new owner Charlotte Purvis. The girlfriend of Matt Williamson, Charlotte is also the sister of Matt Purvis who drove second favourite Svelt into fourth place in the same race.
In the Awarua Synergy trot, Purvis took the reins of the Williamson-trained Pyramid Magic, one of five the Oamaru trainer had in the race.
“I’m not a statistician but I know I’ve had four in a race, if five’s not the most, its right up there,” Williamson said.
Alderbeck and Brad Williamson won the contest from Pyramid Magic and Purvis, with Pyramid Monarch and Jonny Cox giving Williamson the trifecta. The trainer drove Bobbins himself and had a nice trip in the trail behind Moment Of Sun until the leader broke 850 metres from home. It ended the chances of Phil and Bobbins and they finished eighth, one place ahead of co-back-marker and stablemate Springbank Eden was left in front after the incident but gone 400 metres later.
Canterbury race-caller Mark McNamara played a part in the win of Senorita Margarita who was racing from the stable of Kirstin Barclay for the first time.
“My owners wanted a horse, they had one and it wasn’t much chop,” Barclay said, “I’d earlier been talking to Mark, he messaged me about this one.”
Chris Richardson, who helps Barclay around the stables, is among the group of five who race the filly previously trained by Mark Jones.
Senorita Margarita is only the fourth New Zealand bred winner by Vintage Master, a son of Western Ideal. However, she is the ninth winner from the first 10 foals of Oaxaca Lass, herself the winner of 19 races on both sides of the Tasman and more than $450,000.
On her only visit to Ascot Park, Oaxaca Lass won the 2002 Southland Oaks while other feature race wins included the 2001 Sires Stakes Fillies Championship, 2002 Queensland Derby and Australian Oaks, and the 2003 Chariots Of Fire.
The 2700 metre South Port NZ Ltd Bluff Cup fell to front marker Young Conqueror in a smart 3: 23.0, just a second outside Tas Man Bromac’s track record for three year olds set in January 2015. Now five, Tas Man Bromac started off 30 metres and finished second in 3:21.1.
Young Conqueror was one of trainer Brett Gray’s 10 starters, his only winner, but he also added a second, a third and two fourths. Tas Man Bromac’s second was the best of trainer Nathan Willliamson’s eight runners and two fourths his next best result. There are now eight wins separating Southland’s two leading trainers.
Five wins made Dunn the leading driver on Monday while Brent Barclay and Matt Williamson each had two. Three of the winners; Young Conqueror, Jody Direen and Machie Mach were by Mach Three.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
