Stratford-Orange combo win three at Gore

By Jonny Turner 

Tony Stratford and Blair Orange saved the best until last during their winning run at Gore on Thursday.

The training and driving combination brought up a winning treble in the best possible style as Leithen Louie powered away to a decisive victory in the finale on the Wyndham Harness Racing Club’s programme.

The win was strikingly similar to the one the four-year-old produced at Roxburgh two starts ago, when he led in slick time and produced smart sectionals to score.

The carbon-copy victories have been enough to impress Orange, which is a fair rap given the class of horses he drives across New Zealand.

“He is only going to keep getting better, he has still got a couple of little chinks in his armour, attitude-wise and what not.”

“But going forward, he is going to be a lovely horse.”

Orange and Stratford started their day by taking out Thursday’s opener with Van Liberty.

The seven-year-old was luckless in his last start at Ascot Park when sitting parked throughout.

Barrier 1 and the pacer’s early speed helped Orange change his fortunes on his home track.

“He was actually really good last week at Invercargill.”

“He ran fourth and it was really credible because he got a torrid run, I probably drove him upside down.”

“But with the good draw today in 1 and with the good tempo, he capitalised on it.”

La Dama turned her own fortunes around when she ran to a powerful front-running victory on Thursday.

The mare was taking on a significantly tougher grade than she had faced in her recent starts and she handled it with ease after she brought her best manners.

“She galloped last start for no real reason,” Orange said.

“Tony was a little bit confident and he wanted her driven aggressively today, which we did.”

“Being 2200m and with a lot of the favoured runners being off big handicaps, we tried to make it as hard as we could for them.”

Mark Hurrell admitted he may not have been the most popular driver on course when taking out Thursday’s feature pace, the Hunter Handicap.

However, the reinsman was delighted to deliver a win in the Hunter Handicap for the Hunter family.

Commentator Matt Cross was among the many on course who thought Dreams Are Free had delivered Nathan Williamson a victory in his return to driving at Gore.

However, after a lengthy judge’s deliberation, the Craig Ferguson trained Beach Day was announced the winner.

The Hunter Handicap was established by the Hunter family more than 50 years ago.

Beach Day was formerly trained by Greg Hunter, who races the mare with wife Vicky.