Picnics: Taylor strikes again with early brace
By John Kennedy, February 8, 2016 - 9:26 AM

Cranbourne-based picnic rider Leigh Taylor is building an enviable strike rate and he went on with the job at Woolamai last Saturday, riding a double in the first two races.
Taylor now has six winners from just 17 rides across six meetings in 2016.
Both his Woolamai winners were following up on last-start wins with Taylor aboard.
Sale-trained Freshwater Reset ($1.65 favourite) was making it a hat-trick, having won at Balnarring and before that at Healesville, again with Taylor in the saddle.
Taylor’s second winner was Stan the Man ($1.90 favourite) for Cranbourne trainer John Allen, a last-start winner under Taylor at Balnarring.
Both Taylor’s wins were over 1008 metres.
Pace closes
Taylor shared the honours at Woolamai with Courtney Pace, who took advantage of Reece Goodwin’s absence (he was strapping for his father, Barry, at the Bendigo TAB meeting) to cut his premiership lead to four.
Pace opened her account on Know This for Ballarat trainer Anthony Cosgriff in the open trophy race over 2308 metres.
Know This started at $3.70 — appealing odds considering the gelding had won at both the non-TABs (Manangatang) and the picnics (Balnarring) this season.
Pace completed her double on the Ricky Maund-trained The Tale of Aver ($4.80), with favourite Tearaway Tommy running a well beaten last of the five after leading as usual.
Reigning premier Pace now looks well placed to peg back Goodwin’s lead with 11 meetings remaining, starting with this Saturday’s Buchan Cup card at Canni Creek.
It looks like being game on right up to the season-ender at Woolamai on Saturday April 9.
Happy again
Pace narrowly missed making it a treble at Woolamai, going down narrowly in the Woolamai Cup on Divided ($4.80).
After a tough battle up the straight, the cup went to the $3 favourite, Keep Happy, trained by Rebecca Waymouth and ridden by her mother, Debbie.
Keep Happy had won at the previous Woolamai meeting on January 16.
Diamond shines
Bookies went home happy at Woolamai after an outsider claimed the last — the Mervyn Moser-trained Diamond the Lad ($9) led all the way to give jockey Anita Bell her first winner at the picnics.
Moser potters around with a horse at the picnics most seasons and his six-year-old’s win by three-quarters of a length from the Waymouths’ $3.10 chance Lunar Watch will no doubt be a satisfying result.
I believe the horse races in colours once registered to the late, great Jack Purtell, which were gifted to Moser many years ago.
Bell held a trainer’s licence in Tasmania before moving to Victoria.
Her delight at breaking through was tempered by a two-meeting suspension  for excessive whip use, including 14 actions before the 100 metres and three in consecutive strides.
The stewards noted in assessing the penalty that it was a serious breach of the rules and that she had won the race.
Be at Buchan
As mentioned, picnic racing action on Saturday is at Buchan, where the races are on the Canni Creek track.
After a chequered run with weather and bushfires in recent years, all looks set for a super meeting this Saturday.
The following Saturday, February 20, the action returns to Woolamai.

 

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