Maroubra breaks maidens at Banks Peninsula

By Mike Love 

After a string of solid placings, Maroubra broke through for his maiden win at yesterday's Banks Peninsula meeting at Motukarara.

The four-year-old Marcoola gelding began well from its wide draw, yet had to race three-wide early until moving to the parked position for driver Clint Ford. 

Getting cover from the 1000m, Ford then angled for their run from the 350m and looked to have the field covered comfortably despite winning by a short margin of half-a-length from a game Bullet.

Ford's sister and co-trainer Amanda Tomlinson explained that Maroubra is “Clint’s project.”

“I can’t take any of the credit! Clinton does all the work with him,” said Tomlinson. 

It was his first win at start number 20.

Marcoola has now sired seven individual winners from small numbers with the oldest crop now four-year-olds. Marcoola was the winner of eight Group races, 16 races in total with over $500,000 in stakes. 

“They’re starting to show up a bit now. For the limited numbers he got, he’s doing a good job. They’ve got a little bit of the Sundon trait.” 

Maroubra’s win continues great success for the barn with their recent successes including Misty Blue’s win in the Rangiora Summer Cup.

The win notched up the 50th for the Ford/Tomlinson training partnership. 

“Very exciting to get the 50 - but it’ll be more than that because we all work as a team.” 

Other highlights on the programme included Petite Trixton making it three wins in-a-row when winning the Moore Walker Davey Searells Accountants Trot for trainers Brent and Tim White while junior driver Riley Harrison drove a double for her employers Robert and Jenna Dunn with Brentwood Brigade and Normie Stead who was having his first start out of the Dunn barn.

Michael and Wilson House also combined to bookend the card with Super Fund and Nickel And Dime.