Two from two for White at Cambridge

By Brigette Solomon

Clevedon based trainer and driver Matthew White scored a winning double with his two starters at Cambridge Raceway’s meeting last night.

“It was great to get a double with these two tonight,” said White, “we’ve had a good run lately and I’m pretty proud of the team and the effort that goes into the horses from the staff at the stables too.”

Spirit Of Waiheke was the first of White’s runners to salute the judge taking out Race four, the Woodlands Winning Yearlings Mobile Pace, with the filly also having being bred and owned by Woodlands Stud.

“She’s still learning the art of racing and was almost a bit casual when hitting the front,” says White, “she’s from a great family with her dam being a daughter of Spirit Of Eros and I think she’ll improve with a bit more racing.”

From a starting position of six, the three-year-old Bettor’s Delight filly started well with White electing to stay one off the fence and being rewarded the one out one back position following Miss Woodville for the trip. With 400 metres to run, White made his move with Spirit of Waiheke who progressed forward to rein in the leaders and win by half a length.

The Mighty Sully brought up White’s second winner of the night in Race nine, the Off The Track Food And Bev Mobile Pace over 1700 metres.

The Washington VC gelding started from the ace draw and White made the most of it going forward to hold out the race favourite Aardie B Miki. With a well rated drive, White led from start to finish scoring the win by 3 quarters of a length ahead of the second placed Aardie B Miki.

“While my horse is no slouch, I knew Aardie B Miki would likely beat us for speed in a sprint finish so getting rolling was the best option,” says White, “he’s a big striding horse and really covers some ground and it was a good win from him tonight.”

“It’s a good group of mates in the ownership of The Mighty Sully and they’ve all been big supporters of mine so I’m pretty happy to get them another win with him.”

It was the four-year-old gelding's third win from eight starts and his best mile rate to date of 1.54-9.

“Both horses will find things tougher next start as they go up in grade, but for now we’ll just be enjoying tonight’s success.”