Daryl Douglas has driven more than 150 winners already this season
Another bag of Mildura winners on Thursday night helped Australasia’s leading driver Daryl Douglas to his latest milestone of the 2008/09 season.
A winning quartet saw the tireless Bendigo reinsman – who last season drove a record 388 winners – pass 150 winners on just the 130th day of the racing year.
The 35-year-old notched the milestone with his first winner of the night, Ronzel Squatter, before taking his national tally to 153 with wins aboard Rocky Beau, In Bootsn All and Gold Target in consecutive races later in the night.
All four winners were trained by Douglas’s brother Glenn, last season’s leading Victorian trainer.
Douglas’s tally is made up of 149 winners in his home state, three in New South Wales and one in Tasmania.
He holds a commanding advantage over his rivals in the race for the Victorian Drivers’ Premiership.
Second, almost 100 winners away on 67, is seven-time champion Chris Alford, while Kerryn Manning (59), Greg Sugars (48) and Nathan Jack (45) round out the top five.
It is a much more intense battle in the race for the Victorian Trainers’ Premiership.
Glenn Douglas’s Mildura bag has edged him within two wins of Great Western maestro Peter Manning, who has trained 46 winners since the season commenced on September 1.
In third place is Manning’s daughter Kerryn, who has put the polish on 30 winners, while Peter Tonkin (28), Emma Stewart (27) and Lance Justice, Andy Gath and Graeme Lang – who have trained 26 winners – are hot on her heels.
