Comeback jockey Leigh Taylor notched his fourth successive meeting with a winning double at Balnarring last Saturday.
Mind you, those four meetings were spread over more than 20 months.
Taylor finished the 2017/18 season with successive doubles at Balnarring and Healesville but missed the entire 2018/19 term after getting injured in a barrier mishap.
He returned with a double at Woolamai on November 23, then bagged another brace at Balnarring, where he shared the honours with Grant Seccombe.
Taylor’s winning run came to a halt at Healesville the following day, when his five rides yielded only three minor placings.
Tim Grace took the honours at Healesville with a double, also his second of the season.
As a result of all this, the Victorian picnic jockeys’ premiership appears more open than it’s been in recent memory.
Max Keenan’s lead has shrunk to three after a weekend on which his sole winner was a popular one — the Rachael Cunningham-trained Step On It ($1.90 favourite) in the 2000-metre open trophy at Balnarring.
That was Keenan’s ninth winner of the season. Grace and Seccombe share second spot on six apiece, one clear of three-time premier Courtney Pace.
Pace got on the scoreboard at Healesville on Sunday via her father Arthur’s six-year-old Mustang Yabby ($4.20), who prevailed in a thrilling finish to the 1200-metre trophy (1) race, with 1.1 lengths covering the first five across the line.
Taylor’s four wins have him fifth on the table.
His Balnarring brace came courtesy of the Ron Stephens-trained Angel Toff ($9) in the 1200-metre maiden and $3.40 favourite Thunder of Troy for Cranbourne trainer Peter Foster in the 2000-metre maiden.
Seccombe notched his double on eight-year-old veteran Riley’s Rocket ($9) for Cranbourne-based Tabitha Cunningham in the 1200-metre open trophy and on Johnny Romance ($6) for Sale’s Troy Kilgower in the trophy (1) over 1600 metres.
Deb strikes again
The jockeys with the best strike rates at the picnics this year are both in the veteran category — Ray Douglas and Debbie Waymouth.
Douglas, currently injured, has had two rides this season for two wins, both at Mansfield on Melbourne Cup day. 
Waymouth has had four rides for two wins, more recently on daughter Rebecca’s recent stable recruit Nankervis in the 1000-metre maiden that opened Sunday’s Healesville card.
Nankervis, a four-year-old Strategic Maneuver gelding previously trained at Caulfield by Gemma Rielly, came to the Waymouths with far-from-disgraceful form at the professionals — six starts for three fourths, two fifths and a sixth.
But so competitive is the picnic scene this year that the gelding started in black figures ($2.50 favourite) in the eight-runner field.
Nankervis won by 1¼ lengths from 27-start maiden Gorokan Express, who was making his picnic debut for Seymour trainer Ben Brisbourne.
The former Lindsay Park inmate finished five lengths ahead of the third horse, so a long-awaited breakthrough shouldn’t be far away if Brisbourne continues down the picnics path with him.
Major breakthrough
Speaking of useful strike rates, Moorooduc trainer Marcus Fahler is running at 75 per cent this picnic season.
Fahler blotted his copybook at Balnarring on Saturday when last-start Woolamai winner Bay of Faith could only manage fifth to Riley’s Rocket.
But he bounced back at Healesville, making it three winners from four runners for the term when $4 favourite Major Paterson resumed with a win in the 1000-metre open trophy under Tim Grace.
Grace completed his double on another favourite, last-start Woolamai winner Riohsei in the 1200-metre trophy (3) for Mornington trainer Kelvin Southey. Southey thus joined Fahler on three winners for the picnic season, equal third with Don Dwyer and one behind co-leaders Alan Keenan and Troy Kilgower.
Yea beauty
After last weekend’s double-header to Melbourne’s east and south east, eyes turn north this Saturday for the time-honoured Sister Olive Handicap meeting at Yea.
On the track, the main attraction is the 3000-metre open trophy race named after the district filly who won the 1921 Melbourne Cup and sponsored this year by Reddrops Foodworks.
Off the track there’s plenty of activities for the kids, as well as a fully catered marquee hosted by Crocmedia’s Off the Bench team.