It was a day of doubles at Devonport last Sunday, with trainer Barry Campbell and apprentices Chloe Wells and Jabez Johnstone completing the feat.
Campbell notched his brace in consecutive races kicking off with Earendel, who made it two wins in as many weeks when taking the benchmark 64 handicap over 1880 metres.
The gelded son of Needs Further began only fairly and did a bit of work to find the early lead under Wells but kept finding to scrape home over John Blacker’s super-honest galloper Al Maximus.
Campbell completed his double with the well bred Simply Deep, who remains unbeaten after two appearances after taking the Class 1 handicap over 1009 metres, enjoying a trail just off the speed under Lauryn Bingley.
Simply Deep, a $260,000 buy at the 2022 Inglis Classic sale in Sydney, is by classy young sire Shalaa out of Lonhro mare Dilemmas, making him a half-brother to 2016 Sandown Guineas winner Morton’s Fork.
Wells completed her double on father Dean’s charge Bold Instinct, who took the benchmark 76 handicap over the same trip.
Despite drawing the outside barrier in the five-horse field Wells was able to box-seat on the Impending gelding. After being held up for the majority of the straight Bold Instinct got a late split to nail leader Periwinkle right on the line.
Johnstone’s first win came aboard the Max Beamish-prepared Rich Glow, who scraped home after facing the breeze in the Class 2 handicap over 1350 metres.
The two-kilo claimer then made it a running double on the Siggy Carr-trained Night People, who was untroubled leading throughout for a comfortable 2¾-length win in the Class 6 handicap over the same course.