THREE-year-old bay filly Mellore notched her first victory in Saturday’s Roberts & Morrow Maiden Handicap (1100m) at Deepwater, supplying Darren Jones the first leg of his winning riding double.
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The Red Dazzler galloper is part-owned and trained by Inverell mentor, Luke Berger, and treated her opposition with scant respect.
Jones took her to the lead from the outset and Mellore straightened up with a handy advantage.
Topweight Blaine from Mark Hatch’s Scone stables made a brief charge but Jones and Mellore still had plenty in the bank and raced away for an impressive 3.5 length victory with a further 1.25 length margin to Tricky Babe (Sue Bigg) in third place.
Part-owner Phil Lisle, who has a few horses with Berger, was delighted with the winner’s effort.
“That was a big win and there could be good things ahead, I hope,” he said.
“She won a trial convincingly at Moree and then ran fifth in her first start at Toowoomba last Saturday.
“She was jumping out of her skin today and the barrier draw (inside alley) was great.
“Hang on the fence at the bend and you gain lengths.
“ We’ve been coming here for a while now and this is our first winner at Deepwater.
“Maybe we need to have it rain here more often,” Lisle said.
Berger admitted that he has a “bit of an opinion” of the winner.
“Her mum (Christies Beach) had 13 foals and that’s her twelfth winner.
“I’ll see how she pulls up and she might have one more run but I’ll give her a long spell over winter. She’s got some growing to do.
“It’s good to get a winner for these blokes,” Berger said, referring to co-owners Lisle and Rob Stahlut.
“They are really solid supporters.”
Two races later, Jones was back in the winners’ circle when he rode Armidale three- year-old Our Mojo to a thrilling half length win over Paddy Cunningham’s Wendy’s Baby with 3.5 lengths to topweight Allez Charlie trained at Clifton by Julie Weidemann.
The winner stormed home down the centre of the track and just held out Wendy’s Baby which showed her normal finishing burst after being four lengths behind the second last horse early.