PREVIOUS Young Oaks winner Read About Lexy ($3.90) took out the $40,000 Gold Bracelet at Bathurst at the weekend.
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With a brand new track, a lightning fast surface, excellent weather and a large crowd in attendance, the 2015 Gold crown series concluded on Saturday night.
Series heat qualifiers from throughout NSW and Victoria together with visiting Queensland pacers certainly put the newly built 1064.87m track to the test, producing some fast times and in some cases very close finishes.
Definitely a highlight of the night was indeed the gutsy win of previous Young Oaks winner Read About Lexy ($3.90) in race three.
After leading, being headed and fighting back in the straight, the Sportwriter three-year-old filly, who ran 1.56. for the 2260 metre journey, has now won 10 races for her owner Lex Crosby from Eugowra and amassed $130,000 in prizemoney from her 21 start career.
A strong representation of female drivers again made their presence felt providing numerous winners and placed horses in the nine race program.
Menangle Park driver Kerry Ann drove an excellent race to secure a win for the connections of the Modern Art gelding Pompidou ($5) in race two, getting the ladies off to a good start.
Lauren Penella kept the flag flying in race four when Artistic Flight ($2.30) proved that his Gold Crown win last year was no fluke with an impressive win in the $40,000 final.
Bathurst tri-state driver Amanda Turnbull showed why she is one of the leading drivers in Australia with a polished display of front running driving to land Pixies Parlour ($3.10) to victory in the $102,000 two-year-old fillies Gold Tiara Final.
Amanda then produced the drive of the night behind the Steve Turnbull-trained Christian Cullen gelding Heza Thrill ($1.40) in a thrilling finish in race six making it back-to-back wins for the popular Bathurst driver.
Regarded as the jewel in the crown, the feature race of the night was taken out by the Shadow Play gelding Shadow Runner ($4.50) driven by Michael Formosa for trainer Samuel Demarco of Mulbring.
Starting from gate 10 in the $102,000 final, the son of the imported bred mare Ayabacana (Astreos CA) ran a slick 1:55.8 mile rate in defeating Karloo Demajor and Sams The Master in a thrilling three way photo.
Gavin Fitzpatrick started the night off well when Another Fireball ($13.20) took out the opening race, the Gold Bracelet Consolation.
Mirrool driver Stephen Maguire made amends for his defeat on the favourite Bettermach in the feature race with an impressive win in race nine with She’s All Business ($3.90) in race eight while David Miles took out the Gold crown Consolation with Time Keepa Lombo ($11).
Certainly another top night of racing at the all-new Bathurst paceway. Some minor issues that caused no great inconvenience will now be rectified over coming weeks as racing returns to the newest track in NSW.
The Young Harness Racing club will return to racing on Wednesday night, April 22 with a competitive programme that again will produce some exciting and entertaining racing.
