Northern-based hoop Courtney Barnes returned to her hometown of Wingatui on Friday where she recorded the biggest highlight of her career when riding home five winners on the 10-race card.
All five runners are trained by her former employers Brian and Shane Anderton, which further added to the occasion for Barnes.
“I have only won three before (in a meeting), so to get five today was great,” Barnes said.
“It means even more doing it for BJ and Shane, they were massive supporters of mine when I was starting out, and I am forever grateful to them.
“I lived in Mosgiel (when growing up) so I worked for them before school and then I signed up to Shane (for my jockey apprenticeship).”
Brian Anderton was just as thrilled for Barnes and has been only too pleased to support her.
“It was great,” he said. “She was apprenticed to us, and she was bred to be a jockey, her mother was a Didham.”
Barnes was confident she had a good book of rides on Friday, but didn’t expect to achieve the level of success she did.
“I knew I had a really nice book of rides, and I thought I could get a couple, but I didn’t really expect to get five,” she said. “Their (Andertons) horses are really hard to beat on their home track.
“It is pretty cool being able to come home and do that after being away for a few years now.”
The Andertons also celebrated a great day at their local track, with the father-and-son training partnership winning six races, including Exchange in the Property Brokers – Ray Kean Open (1400m) and Afire, a full-sister to Group One winner Smokin’ Romans, taking out the Nellies Restaurant & Bar Maiden (1400m).
“Exchange is a horse that lost a bit of form, and he got to a point where he didn’t like racing much, so we gave him a long spell and he has come back alright,” Brian Anderton said.
“Afire is a sister to Smokin’ Romans, so I was pretty happy with that (win).”
The Andertons came close to getting seven wins, with stable runner Our Approval beaten a mere head in the TAB Southern Alps Challenge Golden Ticket (1600m).
The silver lining of the defeat was that the four-year-old gelding has already qualified for the $350,000 Southern Alps Challenge (1600m), having placed in the ODT Southern Mile Final (1600m), and his vanquisher, The Cluster, gave his sire Ghibellines five wins on the card.
Ghibellines stands at Brian Anderton’s White Robe Lodge, and he was duly rapt with the day’s result.
“We got beaten in the last, but a Ghibellines beat us, so that gave him five for the day too,” Anderton said. “He does a good job.”
Fresh off her memorable day, there will be no rest for Barnes, who will fly back to the Waikato tonight (Friday) in order to ride at Te Aroha’s Saturday meeting.
Barnes is excited about her prospects on the eight-race card, which includes Group One winner and last year’s New Zealand Champion Two-Year-Old Velocious, who will be making her raceday return in the Manco 1150.
“I am back home tonight and I am really looking forward to my book tomorrow, with a highlight being Velocious, with some other nice rides amongst my book,” she said.
“Stephen (Marsh, trainer) has been very good to me since I have moved up, so it would be nice to get a win for him tomorrow.”
