Six races, six different winners

HONOURS were shared at the New Year’s Day race meeting at Fannie Bay.

Carl Spry takes the win at Fannie Bay race course for race 5.

HONOURS were shared at the New Year’s Day race meeting at Fannie Bay.

Six trainers and six jockeys were the winners on the six-race card with leading Darwin trainer Gary Clarke and leading jockey Brendon Davis having to wait until the get-out stakes, the lucky last, to claim their first victory of the day.

The Melinda Boothby-trained Dublin Lad produced a boilover in the opening race, the Class B Handicap over 1200m.

Last start winner Nervous, trained and ridden by Carl Spry, was sent out the short-priced favourite but the fast-finishing Dublin Lad (Richie Oakford) was more than a match for the four-year-old gelding.

Dublin Lad sat off the pace set by Nervous and Magic Greg before Oakford pounced about 300 metres from home, cruising to a comfortable one and three quarters length victory.

Nervous was second, three quarters of a length ahead of Magic Greg (Paul Denton).

“You don’t know how they are going to handle the track on a day like today,” Boothby said.

“I didn’t think he would handled the wet track but he did.

Jockey Oakford said he tried to keep out of the dirt as much as he could with Dublin Lad after drawing a wide barrier.

“He has been thereabouts but he just had not quite cracked it. The last week he has been going well in his trackwork.”

Master horseman David Bates gave diehard Darwin fans one for their little blackbooks when his new recruit Furious Jet scored with ease in race two on his Darwin debut.

The son of Jet Spur got back early but when jockey Craig Lloyd gave him the nod the five-year-old gelding lifted entering the home straight to sprint to a comprehensive four and three-quarter lengths win.

Second was the Shane Clarke-trained Incisive (Melanie Tyndall) with Shogun Star (Brendon Davis) third.

Bates was impressed with the performance of the new Darwin arrival.

“Apart from this horse’s last five or six starts he has some impressive form,” Bates said of Furious Jet, who claimed his fourth win from 24 starts.

“My biggest issue is that he loves to race back last. His form suggests has a bit of quality about him.

“He will go to 1300m without any problems. He has run second in Sydney over that distance.”

Chris Pollard was always going to have a monopoly on the results from race three, the Three-year-old BMNT 54 Handicap.

But the resulting quinella did not quite go to plan with rank outsider of the seven-horse field, The Dynamo (Wayne Davis), claiming the win over the favourite Bestihaveeverhad with Brendon Davis on board. The Philip Cole-trained Breathe Free (Samantha Rowley) was third.

The Dynamo, having only his second start at Fannie Bay and in his career, showed he had learned a lot from his first outing on December 3 to pinch the half-a-length win.

Bestihaveeverhad looked to have the beating of his stablemate in the home straight but Wayne Davis got the best out of The Dynamo as the finishing line approached.

“Bestihaveeverhad had the race fitness on my horse and he was a strong lamplighter giving The Dynamo something to chase after which he did,” Davis said.

“The Dynamo is a very green horse but he is vastly improved from his first start.”

Davis said drawing barrier six also helped because last time he resented the kickback (of the dirt) in his face but yesterday was a different story.

The last saw the successful Clarke-Davis combination finally earn their share of the New Year’s Day cake.

Favourite Lucky Strategy claimed his fifth win from 16 starts and his third from six in the Top End with a two and three-quarter lengths win over Admiral’s Order (Stephen Ridler). Teamster (Felicia Bergstrand) was third, two and a quarter lengths behind.

“He has had a few feet issues lately that’s why I was a little concerned,” Clarke said.

“He is a horse for this time of the year. He is probably not quite good enough now for the better races at Carnival time.”