Fiore continues red-hot run in the saddle, steering home third feature win in 48 hours with Essentric Nature

There’s no one in hotter touch than Lucy Fiore at present, with the leading WA hoop sending home her third feature winner in the last 48 hours when Essentric Nature took the Listed $125,000 Old Comrade Stakes (1600m) at Ascot. Essentric Nature ($5) bounced out quickly but was soon headed by Sensessional ($4.40), who zipped to the front-runner’s role. Chris Parnham seemed intent on keeping the tempo genuine with the pace-maker, which aided Essentric Nature’s cause as he loped along contentedly in third position, two lengths from the lead. At the 500m, Fiore edged the five-year-old from the heels of Oly’s Choice ($31) ahead and gave chase to Sensessional, who offered a valiant kick at the 300m to boot two lengths clear. Fleetingly, his burst looked enough but Essentric Nature began to knuckle down purposefully, drawing level with 20m to go before eking out a long head margin on the line. After securing the Melvista Stakes on Sentimental Legend and the WA Oaks aboard Wonderfully Made on Wednesday, the victory celebrated the week that keeps giving for Fiore. “It’s been awesome. I’ve had a lot of really nice rides. I’d like to thank the trainers for them; you can ride a good race, but you’ve got to have the horse underneath you,” Fiore said. “All credit to the horses and the opportunities and the trainers.” After running ninth when held up in the Grandstand Cup two weeks earlier behind Bonjoy ($2.30f), Fiore was hellbent on taking luck out of the equation. “I probably should’ve stayed on the fence a bit longer (last start) because it ended up opening up and I went out and he got chopped out,” she said. “He never got a crack at them, and I was very adamant today, I said, ‘he will go around’, but the race just worked out perfect for him. “Looking at it, it was quite tricky. I did think when I went back and watched the Grandstand Cup, Sensessional did jump the fastest out of the five horses, so I thought he would be out in front. “I was just hoping I wouldn’t be out the back because I thought that would probably get us beat.” Fiore has proven an able replacement rider for William Pike on many horses from the yard of winning trainers Grant and Alana Williams, who are also in typically strong form. Pike won the Pinjarra Cup for them atop Royal Toronado on March 22 before travelling to Victoria and sustaining a suspension, allowing Fiore the mount on Sentimental Legend in the Melvista. + Tribal Ruler overcame a bout of cellulitis endured on Christmas Eve last year to score a surprise success in the third event for hobby conditioner Phillip McLeod.