The main Goulburn Valley hopes in tomorrow night’s lucrative two-year-old feature finals at Menangle have to contend with ‘‘visitor’s draws’’.
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Impressive Nutrien Alabar Farms prelude winner Schemer has drawn barrier eight in the $175,000 fillies final for trainer Danny Thackeray, while the Isabel Walsh-trained Liberty Crest has an even more difficult task after drawing barrier 10.
In the $50,000 Nutrien Equine Haras De Trotteurs final for two-year-old trotters Avenel trainer Wayne Potter’s hope The Locomotive has barrier six to contend with, but has the services of Nathan Jack in the sulky and will still be hard to beat with his main rival Venus Love drawn immediately outside him.
In the colts and geldings pacers final the David Aiken-prepared Deewhy, who managed only a fifth place finish in his heat, beaten nearly 30m, has come up with barrier one.
Goulburn Valley reinsman Mark Pitt will drive the Emma Stewart-trained First Responder in the two-year-old colts and geldings final, while Jack will partner another of the Stewart runners, Petracca, in the same race.
Pleasure a top tonic
Avenel trainer David Aiken’s recovery from prostate surgery got another boost when extra smart trotting mare Sheza Pleasure saluted at last Saturday night’s Melton meeting.
Sheza Pleasure’s all-the-way win with Chris Alford in the sulky continued a hot streak the four-year-old Bacardi Lindy mare has been on in recent times.
Sheza Pleasure was pressured over the concluding stages, but gamely fought off all challengers in a gutsy win.
Sheza Pleasure has now won four of her past six outings for Aiken and eight of her 30 starts which have produced just on $85,000 in prizemoney.
Art tough in defeat
He may have been beaten in his much-anticipated comeback race at Melton last Saturday night, but super pacer Lochinvar Art certainly lost no admirers.
Racing outside the pacemaker and winner Torrid Saint for the last 1200m of the 1740m dash, Lochinvar Art battled gamely to the line for second, beaten by less than 3m.
But it was the winner’s blistering mile rate of 1:51.7 which produced a big tick for the Shepparton millionaire pacer’s first start for eight months.
Good bets landed
Some good bets were landed when The Last Chance swamped his rivals in the final event at Monday’s Shepparton meeting.
As much as 33-1 was offered in early markets and the seven-year-old son of Mr Feelgood was a $4.40 winning chance at starting time.
Trained by Greg Fleming, who is developing a state-the-art training complex at Murchison, The Last Chance was given the run of the race in the one-one sit by Nathan Jack and powered over his rivals in the concluding stages.
It was the first win Fleming has had with The Last Chance in seven starts he has given the gelding since taking over his training.
It was also the pacer’s 11th win from 66 starts which have also included 16 seconds and six thirds for prizemoney of more than $85,000.
It was also a case of lucky number 13 as it was that many starts since The Last Chance saluted — also on the Shepparton track — in November.
It is so Joe
Four-year-old pacer Sayitaintso Joe made a successful return to Victorian racing when he scored at Shepparton on Monday.
The commentator declared the favourite Yareadyfreddy the winner in a tight finish, but Sayitaintso Joe, who finished wide out after racing midfield, got the verdict by the smallest possible margin — a short half-head.
Sayitaintso Joe was having his fifth start for Nanneella horseman Col Godden, who has bought the Roll With Joe gelding.
His previous three outings were in Queensland where he won at Albion Park on August 9 and had a third placing on the same track at his previous start on August 13.
After that run he was floated back to Victoria where he had done all his racing for his previous trainers Michael Stanley and Luke Stapleton.
Well bred out of the 12 times-winning Somebeachsomewhere mare Beach Time, Sayitaintso Joe has had 24 starts which have now produced five wins and four minor placings and just on $30,000 in prizemoney.
Roscoe roars
Consistent pacer Roarforroscoe notched his third win in nine starts when he saluted at this week’s Shepparton meeting.
In a small field, the Juanita Breen-trained and driven Roarforroscoe was able to retain the front-running position from his barrier one draw and kept finding down the home straight to hold off a determined Jaxon Beach with a 14m gap to the third horse, the Echuca-trained Our Art Work.
A three-year-old son of Betterthancheddar out of the Courage Under Fire mare Sayalittleprayer, Roarforroscoe has had the nine starts which have now produced three wins and four minor placings and has only missed a top four finish on one occasion.
His latest win was in a PB 1:56.9 for the 1690m trip.
Doubling down
Leading concession reinsman James Herbertson certainly made the most of his two drives at the Shepparton meeting, steering home the first two winners.
He saluted on the Vince Vallelonga-trained gelding Always The Showman in the opening event and then buttered up to win the second race on the Brian Crossland-trained Bee Gee Cee.
Having his first start since finishing second in the Mooroopna Pacing Cup on June 12, Bee Gee Cee was an all-the-way winner over the 1690m trip, accounting for the favourite, the Simon Turnbull-trained and Abbey Turnbull-driven High Flux by more than 5m with the John Newberry-trained and Matt Newberry-driven Bobsled Boy filling the minor placing in a local training trifecta.
By the Rocknroll Hanover stallion BGS Folly, Bee Gee Cee has now won five of his 34 starts — all on the Shepparton track.
He has also chalked up nine minor placings.
Wish comes true
Shepparton trainer Russell Jack loves to get back to his old stomping ground Wagga and he likes it even better when he comes home with a winner.
That was the case at last Friday’s meeting at the Riverina Paceway when he saluted with 16-1 shot Wendys Wish and also had the runner-up Animal in the same race.
The three-year-old daughter of Somebeachsomewhere took an early lead before driver Leigh Sutton handed up and tracked the pacemaker Animal before running that pacer down in the concluding stages for an impressive win.
Wendys Wish was stepping out for the first time since February and was making only her sixth trip to the races and has now won three of those starts.
Her winning mile rate of 1:57.9 for the 2270m trip, which included a 56.3 last half, was also a PB.
The win was more welcomed after another of the Jack runners at the meeting, Perfect As I Am, who was favourite, ruined his chances by breaking in the score up and galloping and doing a good job to beat some runners home.
All eights mate
The odds of it happening would certainly be a lot more than 8-1, but if you fancied number eight in each leg of the main quaddie at the Stawell meeting last Sunday you had a nice collect.
Number eight won every leg and the quaddie dividend was a handsome $6071.50.
One of my breed, Claudy An Gus, was one of the leg winners and, while desperate to come up with some system which would be superior to my judgement lining up the eights, unfortunately I wasn’t among them.
Jack has hot trot
Shepparton reinsman Nathan Jack produced a driving hat-trick, claiming three heats of the three-year-old trotters Need For Speed series at the Melton meeting on Tuesday night.
All three wins were on Anton Golino-trained trotters.
He won both three-year-old fillies heats on the outsider Amandine and also Courmayeur and took a colts and geldings heat on Cravache Dor.
In winning, Cravache Dor ended the 14-race winning streak of the Peter Manning-trained Plymouth Chub, who went down by a head.
Wahring trainer Rosie Weidenbach also had a winner at the meeting in Goodlooking Rooster, who was driven by her daughter Olivia.
Coming up
Today: Cobram (d), Mildura (n)
Tomorrow: Melton (n)
Sunday: Cranbourne (n)
Monday: Maryborough (d)
Tuesday: Bendigo (n)
Wednesday: Horsham (d), Shepparton (n)
Thursday: Ballarat (n)
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