One Short gets Wolfe closer to 50 mark
Albany trainer Steve Wolfe is closing in on the milestone mark of 50 winners for the 2017-18 season after One Short held on bravely to win the final race at Belmont Park last Saturday.
One Short was well supported in the $70,000 Fifth Leg Handicap (1400m), settling just off the speed before hitting the front with 200m to run and then holding off a late challenge from Greg Enigma to win by a long neck.
It was a fifth win in 22 starts for the promising One Short and his second triumph in Saturday metropolitan grade.
The result also handed Wolfe his 44th winner of the season as he chases the 50-win milestone, with 12 of the victories coming at metropolitan level.
Albany’s leading trainer has already surpassed the 39 winners he scored last season and could easily add to the 44 he has so far with more than a month remaining this season.
Wolfe sits eighth in the WA Trainers’ Premiership and his 32 provincial winners have him third behind Adam Durrant (48 wins) and Peter Fernie (34) in that respective premiership.
Wolfe will start Arrum Boy, Minus Looks and War Jeune at Belmont this Saturday.
Stable jockey Shaun McGruddy will ride Arrum Boy and Minus Looks, while War Jeune, who is in the same race as Minus Looks, will have the services of Paul Harvey.
Force Element, for veteran local trainer Dixie Solly, will contest the Amelia Park Lodge Handicap (1400m) which also features ex-Wolfe galloper Rare Selection, which has now been transferred to the Justin Warwick stables.
Albany trainer Bob Bell had success over the weekend, with Speed ‘N’ Reef winning the last race at Port Hedland on Sunday.
Gambled and Perazzi both ran third for Bell on the same card.
In Kalgoorlie-Boulder on Sunday, Albany rider Mitchell Pateman rode a double after saluting with rising sprinter Pym’s Royale and three-year-old I’m Slats, while fellow local hoop Natasha Faithfull won the first race aboard Wocknwoll.
Casey Hunter kicked off her Broome season with a winner last Saturday, booting Starry Dane home in the opening race for well-travelled trainer Darryn Pateman.
Hunter has five rides this Saturday in Broome, including linking up with Albany trainer Garry Delane, who is out to score his first winner in the North West this season.
Delane will saddle up eight runners on the seven event program.
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