Darnika Williams on the board

By Mike Love 

Canterbury driver Darnika Williams celebrated her first "super exciting" victory yesterday at Rangiora when she steered Royal Belle to victory in the Kyle Cameron Harness Racing Mobile Pace. 

The Peter and Mitchell Robertson-trained runner made it back-to-back wins since joining the barn recently, giving the five-year-old Gold Ace mare her third career win overall. 

Williams, who works for trainer Mark Jones, was able to position Royal Belle into the trail after some early race pressure over 2000m. Biding their time, Williams then pushed the go button when the field began to wag their tongues at the quarter. Royal Belle coasted to the lead, and held off a serious challenge from runner-up Tuppence, winning by three-quarters-of-a-length, with three lengths back to A Better Jackalack in third. 

“I originally wanted to lead, but it all panned out well and the horse was ready, so credit to the trainers.” 

“I got a wee bit excited and didn’t wait for the passing lane,” laughed Williams.

“I was pretty confident with her based on how she’d won the start before, and with the draw and the gate speed we had.”

The drive for Williams came about with her connection to co-trainer Mitchell Robertson who was a former work colleague at the Jones stable. 

“I worked with Mitch for a while at Mark Jones’, and he texted me for the drive so I was stoked to get on.”

Williams’ win came at her 56th race day drive.

“It's super exciting, I’m very happy. It’ll definitely help my confidence.” 

Other highlights on the programme included a big day out for trainer Bruce Negus. Negus had a team of seven runners engaged. His three runners in race one formed the trifecta (Monkee Major, Folijon Star, Mouton Cadet) which was backed up with a stable quinella in race five (Hoppy's Smile, The Seamstress) returning $139 for the quinella.

Greg and Ben Hope also trained a double with Habibti Amar and Just For Today. Brooks Spirit ran second to Just For Today, giving the Hope’s a stable quinella as well as the sire Carlton.