Mildura reward

The long road trip north to Mildura on Wednesday afternoon reaped rewards for Horsham father-son training team Barry and Aaron Dunn when Always On strolled to victory in a three-year-old pace.

The gelded son of Always A Virgin, USA, led from go to whoa in the 1790-metre contest, dashing home in 58.6 seconds off a soft mid-race tempo to score by 13 metres in a rate of 1:59.6.

The ease of Always On’s victory was in complete contrast to his laststart success at Stawell when he put in a big stride in the shadows of the post to get the judge’s nod by the barest of margins.

Aaron bred Always On from the Panorama, USA, mare Regards. She was a moderate performer on the racetrack with just one victory to her credit from 38 starts under three different trainers.

Regards retired from racing and was later purchased in foal to Aces N Sevens, USA, at an Alabar broodmare dispersal sale.

“Dad was heading over and asked me if I wanted to buy a mare. He came home with Regards in foal and I gave him the cheque,” Aaron said.

The resulting filly foal later raced as Seven Diamonds.

Like her mum she won a race at Ararat before heading to Tasmania where she won another six races before being retired to the breeding barn. The next of Regards’ progeny was Modern Mckenzie, which was a two-time winner for Team Dunn. Then came Wipe The Smile, six wins, Nohowtofoldem, one win, and Regardless, winner of four races from six starts to date.

Charlton success

Charlton trainer Leon Fanning also enjoyed success at last week’s Mildura meeting with his consistent sixyear-old mare Gollahgirl, winner of a C3-5 Pace with Peter Sanderson in the sulky.

Gollahgirl took advantage of the pole draw and led all the way over the 2190-metre journey to score by six metres in a rate of two minutes dead.

Fanning has done a marvellous job to get Gollahgirl into the winners circle at just her third run back from a 15-month layoff.

The mare won five races with former trainer Brian Sylvia before joining the Fanning camp and from 24 career starts is now a six-time winner – all on her favourite track at Mildura.

Fanning has also taken over the training of her older half-brother of Gollahman, which has two recent runs under the belt after an 11-month break from racing.

The eight-year-old gelding has 11 wins and 21 minors on the board from 66 starts for his owner, the Gadsden Farms Group.