She might be turning seven in August, but Bendigo mare Kaniva has still got it, as she showed when she bounced back to form at Echuca last week.
It was the Kuroshio mare’s first win in almost 12 months, and she started a $21 chance in the 1200-metre benchmark 58, on the back of a home-track fifth against filles and mares.
Kaniva appeared to relish the soft 7 track at Echuca — three of her five wins now have come on soft 7 or heavy 8 surfaces.
Sheridan Clarke settled the mare just off the pace,  and on straightening made ground between runners. Kaniva showed great tenacity in the last 100 metres to win in what was a slogging finish.
Kaniva has been an excewllent money-spinner for her connections, her 33 starts yielding $168,710 in stakes.
Timbolton too tough
It was a successful day on home turf for Graham Donaldson last Saturday, with Timbolton ($9) taking out a 1400-metre 0-58 on Bendigo’s Elmore Cup program.
It was only the second win from 23 starts for the four-year-old by Turffontein but it was a visually impressive performance, with rider Jackie Beriman circling the field from the tail and the horse producing a sustained effort to win by a length and a quarter.
Follow Fliedner’s mare
There were a couple of encouraging performances from the local stable of Shane Fliedner at the Bendigo trials on Monday.
The most notable was that of city-winning mare Cute As, a soft winner of her heat over 800m in 49.29 seconds. She looks to be in for a solid winter campaign.
A Caulfield winner as a filly at this time last year, she was placed at Flemington three times last preparation and will be looking to add a second city win to her CV this time in.
Unraced three-year-old stablemate Alvin looked good running second in the final heat on Monday, while maidens Summer Night and Parissident should be able to break through soon after running second in their trials.
It’s a big week for Fliedner, who will be honoured at Flemington’s VRC Country Race Day this Saturday, with race five the 2024 Country Achiever Shane Fliedner Handicap.
This recognises 50 years of service to the racing industry from Fliedner, who started out at age 14 as an apprentice jockey before moving on to a long and successful training career.