FORBURY DOUBLE ON THURSDAY
The Burnham stable of Mark Jones notched their third and fourth wins inside the last six days at Forbury on Thurday night, May 24.
The former world champion reinsman hasn’t driven any of them _ preferring to enlist some of his peers instead _ as he focuses primarily on the training side of his operation for a time.
The stable advanced to 45 wins and $336,159 in earnings for the season when Alex and Superior Desire won the final two races at Forbury.
Last weekend, Holme Fire (Addington), in the hands of Blair Orange, and Bevan Gray (Oamaru), for the stable’s junior driver Regan Todd, were successful for the stable.
Ricky May teamed up with diminuitive Courage Under Fire gelding Alex to deliver in the GJ Gardiner Mobile Pace at Forbury.
Ricky settled three back on the markers with the race favourite, angled him into the clear with 150m to run.
Alex, a younger brother to big-winning mare (Glenferrie) Alexis, stormed home to win going away from second favourite The Agent (Dexter Dunn), who had improved in the open and led early in the run home.
This was the second win in 14 starts for Alex, who was also successful at Forbury in December for Queensland breeder-owner Greg Brodie.
He rated 2:00.7 for the mobile 2200m on Thursday, the leaders running home from the 800m in a useful 57.2s.
Superior Desire, another Southland purchase for Melbourne owners, Merv and Meg Butterworth, was a handy first-up winner in the final race, the Just Essence Mobile Pace.
The 3YO Real Desire gelding had given connections some confidence with a Motukarara workout win five days earlier.
Caught wide from a wide gate into the first turn, driver Blair Orange was able to quickly slot him into a perfect trail on the outer.
Superior Desire finished best, with Bleach finishing well late from midfield on the inner for a head second, denying in-form driver Dexter Dunn a sixth win for the night.
He paced the mobile 2200m in 2:45.3 (2:00.9 mile rate), the leaders running their last 800m in 59.1s and closing 400m in 28.9s.
Superior Desire had placed once in 10 previous south starts for former Makarewa trainers, Leith and Tim Robertson, but had been unlucky more than once.