Chancellor Cullen was back to his best first-up on Friday.
Full Plate for Braun
FRESH from his most successful season as a trainer, Dean Braun may soon face the enemy within with four of his stable stars potentially headed for the Melton Plate on October 4 at Tabcorp Park.
Two of the Lara trainer’s weekend winners in Chancellor Cullen and Rule Like A King look almost certain to target Victoria’s unofficial four and five-year-old championship.
While another of his Saturday night victors, Macho Comacho and the highly touted Magical Telf may join their stablemates in Melton’s next genuine feature pacing race.
“It was obviously another great weekend; Chancellor Cullen was having his first crack at open class racing in The Gammalite and really Chris (Alford, driver) only went for him very late,” Braun said.
“The other two who won at Bendigo were also very good and now I’ll have to talk to all my owners to see just where we’re headed.
“If they all go to the Melton Plate then Chancellor Cullen is my top seed but Magical Telf is also pretty special if he gets the race to suit.”
The Melton Plate has been a happy recent hunting ground for Braun with Chancellor Cullen winning last year’s renewal and Mustang Mach joining Night Of The Stars in the placings 12 months prior.
Best is yet to come
LADYSHIP Mile-winning superstar Broadways Best has confirmed she remains among the nation’s finest female pacers with a dominant win in Friday night’s Cinderella Stakes at Melton.
Coming into the race, Shannon McLean’s outstanding eight-year-old had recorded two luckless and eye-catching placings behind Bitobliss at open class level.
So while the tempo didn’t suit, she was still capable of descending on her rivals in a blistering final quarter to claim the 28thtriumph of her storied career.
Following the success, McLean revealed the frustration at her lack of recent fortune but gratitude that Broadways Best is back in equal career-best form.
“It’s been a bit hard watching her charge home behind Bitobliss, who’s probably close to Victoria’s best horse, without winning but knowing that she’s still at that level is amazing,” he said.
“It’s great for us who train her and the horse herself to see the confidence she has at the moment so we’ll set her for another tilt at the Popular Alm Sprint and just take things from there.”
JJ takes giant leap
IT may not have been the weekend’s biggest win but Josephine Jones’ effort to claim the Xmas Parties @ Tabcorp Park Trot was almost certainly the most extraordinary.
That’s because Anna Farrell’s late-blooming squaregaiter was taking on metropolitan company for the first time at just her fifth career start and won as though she was the veteran of the field.
A six-year-old daughter of Sundon who only started racing two months ago, Josephine Jones made mistakes and finished tailed off at her first two outings but has been on fire ever since.
After sitting parked to claim her maiden win at Geelong, she came from almost last before swamping her rivals at Cranbourne and produced a similar effort on Friday night at Melton.
Regardless of where she’s headed, Josephine Jones may well have the honour of being the only metropolitan-winning T2 for the term and it’s a credit to Farrell that she’s come so far so soon.