Blake Fitzpatrick, pictured here with Empire Bay, drove his 100th winner for the season at Tabcorp Park Menangle on Tuesday. Photo by Ashlea Brennan (HRNSW)
GROUP One winning reinsman Blake Fitzpatrick notched up 100 winners for the season at Tabcorp Park Menangle on Tuesday.
The century of wins came about on Dieu De Lamour, which ironically pushed his earnings past $100,000 with the win too.
Trained by Martin Herbert, it was Fitzpatrick’s second win with the trotter.
“Blake drove him extremely well,” Herbert said.
“The horse wore them down on the line and has been racing extremely well with not a lot of luck so it was nice to see him win.
“I know Blake was excited . . . he has driven a lot of winners for me over the years.”
Unlike Fitzpatrick, Herbert has only trained one other trotter previously and that was 2011 NSW Oaks winner Our Dolly Would.
Fitzpatrick, however, has been involved with many trotters and has experienced a lot of success with them particularly in recent years.
He drove Keystone Del to many Group victories and has also trained many trot winners including Seven Secrets, Glenferrie Burn and Empire Bay in recent weeks.
And it was the pacing bred Seven Secrets that opened the winning account for Fitzpatrick on Tuesday.
At the time of writing, the Cawdor horseman had driven a treble at the meeting also winning with Lombo Yanky Invada, which is by Lombo Mandingo another horse Fitzpatrick had success with.
It is the eighth time Fitzpatrick has driven a century of winners in a season.
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 33 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.
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