Leading jockey Shaun Cooper capped off a treble with a dominant display aboard honest mare Diamanda in last Saturday’s $10,000 Healesville Cup (1650m).
Owned and trained by Balnarring Racing Club life member Michael Binney, the eight-year-old daughter of Golden Snake has been ticking along beautifully this time in and went into the feature with clearly the best form and as such was sent out a popular $2 favourite.
Diamanda bolted in by four lengths at Balnarring on December 7 and had backed it up with two very good runs at Moe and Mornington as a lead in to Healesville.
The mare was right on song as she put a widening 4½-length margin on her nearest competitor, the similarly in-form Consensio.
Diamanda took her earnings beyond $105,000 with the fifth win of her career and there’s no reason why she can’t add to her tally during the rest of the season. 
Title contenders
Cooper’s earlier two winners were on in-form picnic horses that are live hopes for Horse of the Year honours.
Nicole Dickson has her sprinting mare Spirit Maker going great guns with the daughter of Spirit of Boom claiming her fifth win for the season on Saturday, all of which Cooper has been a part of.
Spirit Maker ($2.30f) backed up well from her Woolamai win a week prior and scored by a half-length from War of Wisdom, who placed third behind the mare at Woolamai.
One of her rivals for Horse of the Year honours, Lika Mosh, is on four wins, and likely to run at Woolamai this weekend, and on three wins for the season is Pine Valley who was also successful for Cooper and trainer Don Dwyer last Saturday.
The son of Spieth and recent addition to the stable has raced seven times on the Victorian picnic circuit for three wins, three seconds and a third.
Welcome back Jacquie!
It was a memorable day for Jacquie Joiner who returned to the saddle on raceday for the first time since June 1996 and rode her first winner since April 1994. 
Joiner, the partner of trainer David Noonan, has trained and also worked around stables the entire time since she gave up race riding, but had gotten the itch to ride competitively again in recent times. 
A part-owner of Spirit Maker, and also of the horse she rode to victory, the Noonan-trained Da Deputy, it certainly was a grand day out for Joiner. 
The 10-year-old ghostly grey gelding Da Deputy notched his second win over the 2350-metre course at Healesville in three runs, putting three lengths on his rivals.
It was the seventh win from 46 starts for Da Deputy.
He looks like heading back to the picnics soon, but could also tackle a 3000-metre Moonee Valley race in the coming weeks.
As for Joiner, she is also likely to return to the picnics with saddle in tow in the coming weeks with several Noonan-trained runners lined up for her to continue her comeback on.