Front-running Denman gelding In Fairness proved he’s just as effective on rain-affected ground when he saluted in the feature $50,000 150th Anniversary Handicap (1400m) at Cranbourne last Friday night.
While the Cranbourne Turf Club celebrated 150 years of racing at the course, connections of the Shane Fliedner-trained galloper were celebrating the five-year-old’s sixth victory.
Young gun Ben Allen became the third hoop to pilot the horse to victory, finding his customary leading role and holding the challengers at bay for a tenacious half-length victory.
In Fairness was sent out an $11 chance on the back of a narrow second to subsequent Caulfield placegetter Curragh a month earlier, following a freshen-up.
“He took good benefit from his first-up Ballarat run and was well suited back on to a tighter circuit where he can accelerate quickly off the bends,” managing owner and breeder Joe Vella of Wingrove Park told Winning Post.
The triumph was the dual city winner’s most notable victory, coming at benchmark 84 level, and puts Fliedner one win clear in the Bendigo trainers’ premiership.
In Fairness now looks a prominent player in Bendigo Horse of the Year discussions, and will enhance his claims if he can win the $100,000 Swan Hill Cup (1600m) on June 11.
Friday’s victory took the horse’s stake earnings to $133,975.
In Fairness is a half-brother to Joe and Daira Vella’s Group 3 winner Fair Trade, who was sold to race in Hong Kong following two runs for two wins at Flemington in 2009.
Good Thinking
Sutton Grange trainer Brent Stanley appears to have a smart son of So You Think on his hands in Critical Thinking, who turned heads with his five-length maiden win at Seymour last Thursday.
Having finished second on resuming from a spell at Geelong a month earlier, the three-year-old quickly put paid to his rivals at Seymour with Michael Dee aboard.
“He still has a lot of learning to do but I think he could be prominent in midweek city grade,” Dee told Racing.com.
Stanley purchased Critical Thinking for $70,000 at the 2015 Inglis Easter sales.
The Seymour win was the trainer’s third in the space of a week since returning from suspension, and he nearly had a fourth two days later, with Balancing Act finishing a narrow second at Morphettville in Saturday’s Redelva Stakes.
Henry likes the heavy
The winners kept rolling in for Sutton Grange stables when the Paul Banks-trained Jack Henry notched his second win at Werribee last Saturday.
Local apprentice Kassie Furness partnered the five-year-old, who had broken his maiden at Camperdown in mid January at start number 21.
Following a closing third at Kilmore nine days earlier, the son of Good Journey made his first run on a heavy track a winning one, saluting by three-quarters of a length as a $5.50 shot.
He’s now had 26 starts for two wins, six minor placings and $43,176.
Danny’s Fighting chance
Bendigo trainer Danny Curran revisited a happy hunting ground when he purchased lot 5 at last Sunday’s Inglis Vobis Gold sale.
The stable picked up The Big Dance at the Oaklands sale for a mere $750, and she went on to bank $172,000 with a devastating hometown debut win in the Vobis Gold Rush.
Curran went to $40,000 for a son of first-season sire Fighting Sun out of a winning Flying Spur mare.
Another Bendigo trainer in Aileen Vanderfeen paid $3500 for a daughter of Canford Cliffs while Gus Philpot also went chasing value, paying $2000 for a filly by War.