Like father like son as Dunns lead the way

DYLAN Dunn landed two important winners in his bid to claim the Melbourne apprentices’ premiership.

Since Dunn won on Heza Ripper at the metropolitan meeting at Sale on June 8, fellow apprentice Michael Dee had pegged back six wins back in the race for the title.

Dunn started yesterday’s Caulfield meeting two in front of Dee and was able to add to his season tally of city winners with another victory on Heza Ripper in The Cove Hotel Handicap and then on A Lotta Love in the last race, the Schweppes Handicap.

The double took him to 33 city winners of the season in Melbourne.

Dunn’s father Dwayne, who also scored a double at Caulfield, leads the Melbourne jockeys’ premiership.

‘‘Words can’t even describe how much it means to me,’’ Dylan Dunn said, talking about the apprentices’ premiership.

‘‘I’ve never wasted so hard. I’ve ridden at 55 kilos every weekend for at least three months plus now, and usually I’d struggle to do that on a weekly basis.

‘‘I was thinking about it the other day, it is one of those things you can’t physically buy it so I think, especially if Dad won it as well, it would be life changing.’’

Heza Ripper was well backed, firming from $7.50 to $4.50, and after travelling nicely in front he gave a good kick early in the straight.

The four-year-old got home by a half length over the resuming Camdus with the same margin to Lord Barrington third.

Trainer Tony Gollan’s confidence in causing an upset with Amexed in the Listed Caloundra Cup was boosted when he looked at race times from Ipswich Cup day two weeks ago.

In a surprise result, Amexed proved him right in the $175,000 race, storming home to an impressive win while the $1.50 favourite Maurus could finish only fifth.

Maurus’ trainer David Vandyke said he was disappointed with the run and could offer no excuses.

‘‘He has been to 2400 metres twice now and failed both times,’’ Vandyke said.

Maurus won the Ipswich Cup running 2min 13.74s and Amexed won a restricted race over the same distance in 2min 13.04secs.

Gollan said he had been confident Amexed could win .

‘‘My bloke ran a faster time when he was in the worse part of the track. The favourite had to carry a kilogram more on Saturday and we dropped two-and-a-half kilos,’’ Gollan said.

The two New Zealand horses in the race, Gesemi and My Diamantine, finished eighth and 10th respectively in the 11-horse field.