Four wins at Tumut on Saturday were followed by a winning double including the Cup at Cowra the next day for Albury based jockey Blaike McDougall.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And with that the 26-year-old McDougall, who was reared at Portland near Lithgow, became the first jockey in Australia to reach 100 wins for the current season, which concludes on July 31.
McDougall reached the milestone with an impeccable ride to win the 1700 metres Cowra Lamb-Cowra Cup on the Matthew Dale, Canberra trained Royal Thunder.
An all the way winner at the last two starts, the Dean Mirfin, Bathurst trained Saint Ay crossed quickly from barrier 8 to lead the Cup field past the winning post the first time with the $1.70 favourite Royal Thunder taking the trail.
READ ALSO:
Turning for home, Royal Thunder took control and was able to hold off by a length the Gilgandra Cup winner Universal Thief (Kath Bell-Pitomac, $14) with Upper House (Mathew Cahill, $5.50) carrying the 61kg top weight , a game third.
Wellington trainer Michael Mulholland and his apprentice Kath Bell-Pitomac who combined with Universal Thief, had earlier won the 1375 metres Cowra Bowling Club Class 3 Handicap with Old Harbour.
Riding in tremendous form this season, Kath Bell-Pitomac had Old Harbour ($4.20 favourite) positioned behind the leaders including Camp Rifle which dashed well clear at the top of the straight.
Over the concluding stages Old Harbour reeled In Camp Rifle (John Kissick, $4.80) to score by a half length with Frazil ( Winona Costin, $10 ) a handy third.
Backing up from winning the Foran Family Town Plate at Gilgandra, the Kody Nestor, Dubbo trained What The Fuss was again too good for some smart sprinters in the 1200 metres Breakout River Meats Cowra Japan Cup.
Tony Cavallo, who rides a lot of winners for Kody Nestor, settled his mount off the pace and What The Fuss ($3.50) sprinted to a two lengths win over Stephan (Heni Ede, $12) and the leader I Am Capitan (Madison Waters, $3.30 fav.).
Liam Blanch who is apprenticed to Kody Nestor "beat the boss" when winning the 950 metres Dr Geoffrey Sprigge Memorial Benchmark 58 Handicap on the Sharon Jeffries, Parkes trained Maria Elisa.
The rapidly improving Blanch on Maria Elisa ($3.90 favourite) tracked the leader then finished best to beat the Nestor trained Bizarro (Tony Cavallo, $5) by a half neck with Miss Devinci (Qin Yong, $9) a length away third.
Sharon Jeffries is now looking forward to her home town meeting on Saturday at Parkes where her husband Dale Jeffries as curator has the track in top order.
Cowra attracted the biggest crowd for many years and there was a local victory when the Michael Lynch trained Currawar at $26 and ridden by Dubbo jockey Ken Dunbar finished strongly to beat the leader Victory (Ashleigh Stanley, $21) and Jaywalker (Tony Cavallo, $7) in the 1375 metres Australian Hotel Maiden Plate.
Racing continues with a meeting on Saturday at Parkes, before Bathurst and Wellington at month's end.