Joy for Barrons with filly’s debut

By Jonny Turner

Father and daughter combination Clark and Ellie Barron rolled out an impressive filly at Winton on Thursday in winning debutante Feelthejoy.

The Always B Miki filly burst out of the trail to score impressively, showing she has a bright future and plenty to learn about racing when taking out race 3.

The Barron team have only just scratched the surface of the filly’s speed and stamina with Feelthejoy cruising to the line untested.

“The bottom is definitely there, we are not sure about the top speed yet, she hasn’t really been asked for that yet,” Ellie Barron said.

“Brent (Barclay) has done a lot of work with her, he had to give her a wake up at the workouts because she is so dopey.”

Feelthejoy joins the long list of winners Clark Barron and Eric Parr have produced from their Miracle Lodge breeding partnership.

The three-year-old is from Southland Oaks winner Jumpforjoy, making her a half-sister to 8-race winner Somejoy and talented Perth three-year-old Jumpingjackmac.

Clark Barron said the Southland Oaks was a possible target for Feelthejoy later this season.

But in the meantime the filly would only have one or two more starts before being sent for a freshen up.

The trainer confirmed Feelthejoy had been the subject of interest from several potential buyers but at this stage, he and Parr were not interested in selling.

Based in Canterbury, Ellie Barron is now working at Matt Purvis’ Woodend Beach stable.

It has meant the junior driver hasn’t been able to drive Feelthejoy in her recent trials.

Barron was thrilled to get the call up to drive the pacer on Thursday.

“I haven’t been really lucky in terms of nice horses recently."

“Brent (Barclay) actually had first option and he was good enough to let me drive her.”

“He said I deserve a nice one, so that was nice.”

Barron will be back in Canterbury ahead of Sunday’s Motukarara meeting where she will drive Moody River for Purvis in race 4 and Vesnina for Robert and Jenna Dunn in race 6.

There were few more impressive winners on the Winton’s eight-race card than Laurie’s Legacy.

The Brad Williamson trained four-year-old faced a big step up in grade after winning her maiden and handled it in style.

After doing plenty of mid-race work the trotter dug deep in the home straight for an impressive victory in race 5.

Thursday’s meeting saw the swansong of veteran pacer Dachy on her home track.

The nine-year-old ran third behind her fellow Winton trained mare Tartan Roxy in race 6.

Trainer Ian Goodman said Dachy has a booking to stallion Always B Miki this spring.