‘Gemma’ shows blistering speed

Classy mare Imprincessgemma ran her rivals ragged in a $10,000 C1-2 contest at Melton on Friday for the Armstrong training team of Leroy and Danny O’brien, driver Kerryn Manning and owner Sharryn O’brien.

‘Gemma’ showed blistering gate speed from the outside of the front line to find the pegs within the first 150 metres, and driver Manning kept them running with a middle split in 56.1 seconds.

The final half mile was a somewhat slower 58.0 seconds, but the damage was well and truly done as Imprincessgemma strolled to a 20-metre victory in a rate of 1:53.3 for the 1720-metre sprint trip.

The daughter of Village Jolt CA has shown plenty of ability since her career commenced, winning the Vicbred Home Grown Classic Fillies Final at Melton as a two year old and a heat of the NSW Oaks in her three year old season. Gemma then went amiss in a heat of the 2018 Victorian Oaks, but has returned after a six-month absence to record four victories and two seconds from her six starts as a 4YO mare.

Still lightly raced with just 21 starts under the belt, the O’brien family should enjoy plenty more success with Gemma as she further adds to her already fine record of nine wins, eight minors and $90,545 in stakes.

Not bad for a $900 plus GST yearling buy at a Shepparton dispersal sale.

Red-hot Reciprocity

Much travelled five-year-old mare Reciprocity continued her red-hot recent form with a victory in the $30,000 VHRSC final at Melton on Friday.

Since joining the Peter Manning stable, the flashy chestnut has notched up four wins from five starts, including the double in quick succession at harness headquarters.

Driver Kerryn Manning made the most of Reciproci- ty’s blinding early speed to find the lead before the first corner, then gave the $2.40 favourite a breather through the middle stages of the 2240-metre journey.

The combo steadily increased the tempo in last lap, ripping home in 55.1 seconds to score by two metres in a rate of 1:56.3.

Reciprocity has won 11 races from 34 starts at tracks spread far and wide throughout New Zealand, NSW, Queensland and Victoria, and built a bank of $75,460 for owner Henry Campbell.

Living the dream

Balmoral trainer Janet Exell has nine-year-old mare Keepthedream racing in fine fettle and was rewarded with another victory at Mt Gambier on Sunday.

The name of the game is to ‘just keep trotting’ and Exell’s squaregaiter did just that as she made light of a 20-metre handicap to quickly find the lead as the remainder of the field struggled to find their rhythm.