By Brigette Solomon
The wet weather and slushy track were no hindrance to Dontstopmenow in the Dunstan Horse Feeds Cambridge Xmas Handicap Pace tonight.
The three year old colt by Captaintreacherous won comfortably in the hands of his trainer and driver Tony Herlihy to bring up his 5th win.
“He’s a nice horse coming through the grades and I was pleased to get that win with him, he will likely head to the paddock now and be back later in the new year” says Herlihy.
Starting from the unruly position on the front line, Dontstopmenow stepped well and was stride for stride with Bad Medicine and Hooray Henry before taking the lead from the 2200 metre mark.
“I was very happy to get to the front and stay in front – it’s a good place to be on a slushy track” said Herlihy.
Herlihy dictated the pace with the colt travelling comfortably throughout. Village Rebel moved to sit outside Dontstopmenow, in the final lap but the colt was too good when let down by Herlihy to score by 3.5 lengths ahead of Bad Medicine 2nd, and Miki Shan 3rd.
Another front running winner was Royal Action, taking out Race 1 the Off The Track Food and Bev Handicap Trot. Trained by Andrew and Lyn Neal, and also driven by Lyn, the three year old filly stepped well to lead and score by just over a length at her first race day start indicating she may be one to follow in the future.
“She’s a well bred filly being out of a half sister to Royal Apsirations and we really like her” says Neal “She’s had plenty of educational trials and it was good she got everything right tonight and win.”
The slushy track did cause some issues for the starting mobile, with the vehicle losing traction when starting Race 2. Fortunately starter Danny Blakemore was well prepared with a smooth transition to moving starts for races 4, 5 and 8.
“Despite changing the tyres and tyre pressure on the vehicle, we still had traction issues” said Blakemore “After speaking with Dave Branch and the Stipendiary Stewards, we all agreed to move to moving starts in the interest of safety.”
