A winning treble gave Tamworth trainer Leon Davies plenty to smile on the way home from Saturday’s meeting at Gilgandra.
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Davies made the trip to the seven-race non-TAB meeting with gelding Brilliant Poet and mares Joy Of Joys and Win One More.
Davies day started with Joy Of Joys and No Angel Here in the Congratulations 2016 Gilgandra Junior Netball Champions Plate (1300 metres).
Joy of Joys ($1.80 favourite) with Vad Bolozhinskyi in the saddle, took a comfortable victory by three lengths, with No Angel Here (Kody Nestor, $4.20) taking third place.
Joy Of Joys is a full sister to the former champion mare More Joyous being by supersire More Than Ready from the Oaks winner Sunday Joy.
The day continued to be a good one for Davies.
Brilliant Poet (Kaylee Kirkwood, $2.70 favourite) enjoyed a narrow win in The Madhatter Band Playing @ New Years Eve Races 31/12/16 Benchmark 55 Handicap, holding out Dean Mirfin’s Super Pig (Jamie Gibbons, $4.60) by a nose.
A second win for Davies came in the final race of the day, the Gilgandra Sporting Club Gilgandra Cup Calcutta 30/12/16 Handicap (1200 metres), with the appropriately-named One More Win.
It was another close one but One More Win (Nestor, $2.80 favourite) was able to edge out Michael Lunn’s Red Cliffs by a head for the victory.
While Davies took out the most wins on the day, Gilgandra course curator Bruce Parker was the man to win the feature race, the Gilgandra Panthers Premiers Benchmark 65 Handicap (1200 metres) with Double Halo.
Ridden by Parkes jockey Tiffany Jeffries, Double Halo ($3.40 favourite) from off the pace finished strongly on the outside to score a two lengths win over Vision Retract (Tony Cavallo, $6) and Bee Plus (Leanne Henry, $10).
Double Halo is part owned by Gilgandra Jockey Club President Andrew Schier while Ultimate Joy,winner of the Maiden Handicap (1100 metres) is owned by John and Kate Smith former long time secretaries and now Life Members of the Club.
The Rodney Robb, Nyngan-trained Ultimate Joy (Clayton Gallagher, $5.50) after racing in a handy position was a two lengths winner over Havastrategy (Tony Cavallo, $3.80 favourite) and Hannah To Smile (Mikayla Weir, $6.50).
Clayton Gallagher,apprenticed to Rodney Robb,also won the Benchmark 45 Handicap (1300 metres) on Some Nights ($12) for Narromine trainer Wayne Collison.
Easiest winner at Gilgandra was the Graham Watts-trained Tully Ho (Sophie Young, $5) which set the pace and breezed home seven lengths ahead of All Or Nun (Kaylee Kirkwood, $16) and Rose Affair (Leanne Henry, $4) in the Gilgandra Junior League Champions Maiden Handicap (1100 metres).
