Big Night Out at Albany for Miller and Howlett
It was another great night of pacing at Albany on Friday night with nine races on the card and full fields on offer. Training honours were with Busselton based trainer Barry Howlett, with a training treble from his six runners engaged, a 50% winners to runners strike rate on the night. Mitchell Miller had bragging rights in the reinsperson room with a driving quadrella.
“Should’ve had five this week but I got one wrong.” Miller joked.
Flametree kicked off the night for Howlett with a win in the first, with Mitchell Miller in the cart. After putting in a few rough strides soon after release point, Miller worked the filly forward to gain the lead with a lap and a half to go, with the well-bred youngster going on to win by 8.3m in 2:04:7 over the 1832m sprint trip, giving the two-year-old her first win at her first start in a race.
They say a change is as good as a holiday, and that sentiment rung true in race two with Kolisi getting the win for his new trainer, Nathan Dymock. Purchased last week after his run at Albany, he started as the second favourite at $3.90 odds, and after settling in the one-one position, Shane Butterworth was able to steer home the four-year-old to victory by 2.1m in a mile rate of 2:03:2 over the 2265m mobile start.
Trent Wheeler walked away with a driving double on the night, with the first of his winners kicking off in race three on board Simply Shaz NZ. Trained by Peter Anderson, the consistent four-year-old resumed after eight months on the sideline, and at $1.85 odds did plenty of work to get the win, pulling away from her rivals by 9.4m in 1:59:4 over the 1832m sprint trip for the fillies and mares.
Mitchell Miller and Barry Howlett teamed up again in race four, with Jackpot Joe NZ making it three in a row this time in. The extremely short-priced favourite led all the way from barrier one over the 2265m in a mile rate of 2:02:0, with the three-year-old winning comfortably and continuing the great run for Miller and Howlett as a partnership.
Troopingofthecolor brought up the second leg of Peter Anderson’s training double on the card, with the short-priced favourite getting the cash for driver Donald Harper. With a few runners going hard early in hopes of the lead, it left the four-year-old in the breeze throughout, but that didn’t seem to worry him, with Troopingofthecolor going on to record his sixth career win in 29 starts in 1:59:0.
Tubbs Farquhar has been knocking on the door his past few starts, but on Friday night broke his 25-month spell between wins for trainer Hayden Reeves, giving Trent wheeler his second win in the cart on the night. The seven-year-old who came off a last start second and ran third in the Albany Cup just two weeks ago started from barrier three and led throughout over the 2265m trip, kicking away to win by 4.6m in 2:02:0.
It was a race-to-race double for Hayden Reeves, with Thomson Bay taking out the stand after coming off the 70m handicap over the 2247m journey. Driven by Kyle Symington, the five-year-old managed to tack on to the back of the field quickly after release point, and after tracking three wide behind Reeves’ other runner 500m from home, he managed to get the win by a half neck, giving Hayden Reeves the race quinella with The Freelancer coming in a close second in the race, clocking a mile rate of 2:00:6.
Favourite punters were rejoicing in the penultimate event after Our Surrogate brought up his 11th career win in 64 starts after leading all the way in 2:03:3. Trained by Lang Inwood and driven by Mitchell Miller, the $1.45 shot kicked away to win comfortably by 8m over the 2265m, giving Miller his third win on the night.
Win three for Barry Howlett and win number four for Mitchell Miller came up in the last on the card when the in-form duo joined forces with Diamondsonthebeach NZ. Starting from barrier five, the five-year-old initially found himself in the breeze briefly before working forward to the lead just over two laps from home, winning untouched by 10.7m over the 2265m trip in a mile rate of 2:02:8.
Ashleigh Paikos