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Meeting In Review – Saturday 9 March 2024
Date: 12-Mar-2024
Eagle Farm trainer Chris Munce and rising star apprentice jockey Emily Lang starred at Saturday’s ten-race Ipswich meeting.
The duo combined late in the day with a winning race-to-race double.
Houston Rocket provided the first of their wins came in the TAB Benchmark 60 Handicap over 1350m.
The four-year-old son of Sebring didn’t have the early speed to go with his rivals, so Lang was happy to settle towards the back and bide her time.
Lang improved on the turn before getting her mount to the outside where he let down with powerful finishing burst to run down Sian Star right on the line.
It was a perfectly timed ride by the young hoop as was her work aboard Millward in the next race.
The Munce-trained gelding was making his return from almost a year off the track when he lined up in the Bank of Qld Winston Glades Class 1 Plate.
Lang settled midfield in the 1350m contest before improving her position midrace with the lack of speed.
Millward stormed home and in a three way go and got his head down at the right time to claim a nose hair victory.
Lang is having an amazing season at Ipswich with her two wins on Saturday taking her 2023/24 tally to 15 and an equal share of the jockey premiership with last year’s winner Jimmy Orman.
Another apprentice to claim a winning double was Jai Williams.
The 20-year-old has made a habit of the feat in recent times, with Saturday’s two timer his third in the past four Ipswich meetings.
The first of Williams’ wins came in the Imperial Racing Class 2 Plate with Flag Hall.
With nearly half the field scratched, the Lee Freedman-trained three-year-old gelding started a $1.40 favourite.
Flag Hall showed good speed out of the barriers to comfortably lead the 1100m sprint.
It was an easy watch for those that took the short odds with Williams barely moving on the chestnut as he raced away for a 3.72 length win.
Williams has had plenty of recent success with Sunshine Coast trainer Darryl Hansen and they again teamed up to share an Ipswich win.
They missed out narrowly with Sian Star earlier in the day and it was another close call in the final event.
This time it went their way with the judge awarding Kavak the win over roughie Rollinwiththeflow.
It was a day out for the apprentices on Saturday with six of the ten races won by claiming jockeys.
Cody Collis’ 2kg claim came in handy in the Great Northern Maiden Plate when he was able to get the better of La Stella Atleta by a head.
Special mention of race 2 winning jockey Alisha Donald who performed a rare feat on Saturday.
The Toowoomba apprentice made the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 800m a one act affair when she bounced the Pat Webster-trained Hayai Uma straight to the front and went all the way for a 3.31 length win.
Following that win, Donald drove to Esk where she piloted Gypsy Power to victory for Shaun Dwyer Jnr.
The 2kg claimer wasn’t finished there, continuing her travels to Toowoomba where she had five rides.
She accomplished an amazing achievement of three wins at three separate tracks in the one day when she rode another Webster-trained horse, debutante That’s An Extra to a three-length victory.
Back to Ipswich and in race 3 we saw the successful return of Purveyor who used Ipswich as a training base during his Queensland Racing Carnival preparation last year.
The Bevan Laming-trained Merchant Navy colt ran on strongly to deny Jai Williams a third win on the day.
While the margin was small, the win was relatively soft on the line and the three-year-old looks set for another good winter campaign.
The David Murphy-trained Beach Babe was heavily backed in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Benchmark 65 Handicap over 1100m.
She certainly didn’t let her supporters down with an impressive display.
The lightly raced filly is building a nice record and should add more wins to her tally based on Saturday’s run where she led and proved too strong when winning by 2.23 lengths.
We will host another Saturday meeting on the 17th of March when the club turns green for St Patrick’s Day.
By Craig Sheppard
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