Folklore upsets in Mares Championship

by Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

It was a night of upsets at Addington Raceway on Friday night, headlined by Folklore in the Gr.2 Garrards ‘Premier Mares’ Championship Mobile Pace (1980m).

The Jonny Cox-trained and driven seven-year-old paid $44.10 to win the night’s feature and did it in emphatic style, cruising away to a comfortable 6-1/4 length victory.

“She has got a good turn of foot, but it just helps when they are going hammer and tongs up front and she was able to sit off the speed and had one run at them,” Cox said.

“She got the run to suit and everything worked out with the favourites going pretty hard up front. We were just in the right spot at the right time.

“You never expect to win those sort of races like that, but everything played into our favour.”

It was Folklore’s first Group victory and Cox said it was just reward for the consistent pacer.

“She has raced the nicer mares over the last couple of seasons and she always tries so hard,” he said.

Cox has now set his sights on loftier targets, with Folklore returning to Addington in a fortnight to contest the Gr.1 Fahey Fence Hire (51st) NZ Standardbred Breeders’ Stakes (2600m).

“She will head to the big mares race in two weeks time all going well. She has pulled up pretty well after the run,” Cox said.

“She is going to race a similar lot of mares. I can’t think of too many that will come into it again.

“The first three favourites were fresh-up for about a month, so they are going to take a lot of improvement out of their runs, so it is not going to be easy.

“We are at the top of our game at the moment and she showed that last night.”