Top jockeys take title race south Fri, 06 Jul 2012
Jockeys’ premiership frontrunner Matthew Cameron has seen his lead whittled away to just one as his enthralling battle with Lisa Allpress for the title moves south to today’s Ashburton fixture.
Cameron drew a blank at yesterday’s Waverley meeting to remain on 147 winners for the season, while Allpress moved up to 146 with perhaps her easiest win of the term aboard the progressive Thorn Prince.
The former Waverley apprentice barely moved a muscle on the Fraser Auret-trained three-year-old on their way to a 10-length drubbing of their Rating 65 staying opposition.
A strapping bay son of Thorn Park, Thorn Prince had won his maiden at his previous appearance and looks to have an excellent staying career ahead of him for breeder-owner John Bromley who has been a strong supporter of the Auret stable. “It’s great for him and he’s been tremendous for my career,” Auret said.
Thorn Prince coasted along in second spot and jogged to the front 600 metres from home when the pacemaker Golden Queen hit the wall. “He was always travelling,” Allpress said. “He’s just taken a long time to grow into his frame he’s a big horse.”
While Thorn Prince is likely to be sparingly raced in the immediate future, he is likely to remain in the stable. “He’s got better with everything we’ve done with him and he’s pretty exciting,” Auret said. “Sometimes they do better in work this time of the year rather than go out in the cold.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Myers’ grand season form continued yesterday with a winning double to lift him to 80 for 2011-2012 season. His conditioning skills were emphasised when Snodroptwinkletoes was successful on debut over 2200 metres and Conserves La Foi later claimed the Rating 85 metric mile.
