Breathe Free, Unfaithfully taste victory at Fannie Bay

THE Cole train trend continued in race two at Fannie Bay on Saturday afternoon when trainer Philip Cole made it back-to-back wins with Unfaithfully.

Race 3 at the Fannie Bay Turf Club is taken out by number 8, Ville De Berne ridden by Paul Marks with trainer Philip Cole. Philip Cole has recently relocated to Darwin.

THE Cole train trend continued in race two at Fannie Bay on Saturday afternoon when trainer Philip Cole made it back-to-back wins with Unfaithfully.

Strongly ridden by jockey Melanie Tyndall, the seven-year-old mare was having her first start since finishing fourth at Naramine more than a year ago.

Unfaithfully, who is owned by the trainer’s wife Rhonda, has only been in Darwin for 11 weeks but defied her rank outsider status to blitz the field by two and a half lengths.

The Alwyn Trengrove-trained Frisky Albert (Richie Oakford) was second with short=priced favourite King Dejour a disappointing third.

Unfaithfully scored her fourth win from 23 starts, and her first in the Top End, but looked as if she had been riding on the Darwin dirt all her racing life.

Cole revealed that he had bought the mare from owners who had retired her and left her in a paddock in Adelaide.

“We got her for a pretty cheap price after Rhonda bargained with the owners,” he said.

“I thought she would run a bold race today but the favourite (King Dejour) would be hard to beat.”

Earlier in race one, Breathe Free, with Samantha Rowley in the saddle, gave Cole his first victory in Darwin since he relocated to the Top End permanently with his family eight months ago.

The three-year-old gelding won by six lengths going away from Chettalli (Stephen Ridler) with Oro Bello (Craig Lloyd) one and a quarter lengths third.

Rowley took Breathe Free to the front from the inside gate and never looked back, winning in style.

Cole now plans to send the son of Statue of Liberty to Alice Springs for the Guineas on April 11.

“When we moved to Darwin we had to start fresh with some new horses and some of them were unraced,” he said.

“I was disappointed he did not win his last race.

“The horse wants more distance and I am looking to the Guineas in Alice Springs.”