‘Work in progress’finds form
The Great Western training team of Michelle and Craig Wight were rewarded for their time and effort with Normandy Nugget when the four-year-old gelding notched up his maiden victory at Laidlaw Park on Friday.
The son of colonial entire Goodtime Sammy and former handy performer Justa Dream Lombo has been a work in progress since landing at the Wight’s stable.
He made enough headway to qualify as a three-year-old at Ararat trials last winter and debuted a month later at Swan Hill, but the occasion got the better of him and he was stood down by stewards after breaking and causing a false start.
Normandy Nugget trialled and followed up with a trouble-free third placing at Ararat and a pleasing effort in slick time at Horsham before being sent for a spell.
The pacer resumed at Maryborough in late December, but was again under the notice of the stewards and followed with more of the same at Stawell and Boort.
Things brightened up with Normandy Nugget’s steady effort at Horsham mid-january and a solid performance when hauling a flat tyre at Geelong a week later.
The gelding lined up at Stawell on
Australia Day for his sixth start in 34 days and showed plenty of fight to score a well-deserved victory after making an unsuccessful challenge for the lead after the start, then doing it tough outside the leader for the entire 1785m journey.
Team Wight has nominated Normandy Nugget for a $7000 sprint trip at Hamilton on Friday and hopefully will continue progressing as a racehorse.
Curyo Gentleman
A perfect front-running drive by Michael Bellman gave four-year-old gelding Curyo Gentleman the upper hand in the $9000 Ecycle Solutions Pace at Stawell.
From gate four, the combo easily won the start and crossed to the pegs to dictate the tempo throughout the 2180-metre journey.
A mid-race half of 62 seconds forced Aaron Dunn to take the oddson-favourite Little Louie forward to sit outside the leader for the final 1200m of the contest.
Bellman upped the ante at the bell and Curyo Gentleman’s final splits of 28.3 and 28.2 seconds made things super tough for horses out in the running line or back in the field chasing.
‘Curyo’ always had the race in his keeping and scored by four metres in a rate of 1:59.6.
The victory took the lightly raced pacer’s record to five wins, seven mi
nors and $32,800 from only 17 starts.
Curyo Gentleman is trained by Rod Carberry for Horsham breeders and owners Robbie Connelly and family.
Son Of A Sun
Former New Zealand squaregaiter Son Of A Sun cruised to a 24 metre victory in Friday’s $7000 The Johnnys Live@stawell 15-3 Trotters Handicap for trainer-driver Kerryn Manning.
The six-year-old gelding began somewhat scratchily from the 10 metre handicap and settled back towards the tail of the main bunch.
With the leader Majestic Connie,
Tyrone Abela, content to dawdle through the first two laps of Laidlaw Park, Son Of A Sun made ground and was poised to strike at the business end of the 2180 metre journey.
Manning made her move at the 400 metre mark and Sun Of A Sun dashed clear of the pack and strolled to the post 24 metres clear of favourite Fredrhys, Jackie Barker.
Owners Merv Butterworth moved the trotter across the ‘Ditch’ back in October to join the Kerryn Manning stables at Great Western.
Manning has entered Sun Of A Sun in an $8000 MS trot at Hamilton on Friday.
Gliding week
Horsham Flying Club’s Horsham Week gliding competition begins on Saturday.
Horsham Week, based at Horsham Aerodrome, involves morning sessions for weather, safety and terrain briefings before competitors spend each afternoon flying.
Flight courses can span 120 to 500 kilometres and gliders are judged on distance and speed.
The event is the biggest in the club’s calendar and is one of the longest-running gliding competitions in Australia, running for more than 50 years.
The flying club also hosted coaching week this week for learners to experience gliding on cross-country courses.