Keeping Pace: Armidale's Carnival of Cups nigh

In recording an all-the-way win, the eight-year-old secured his first career victory, at race start 45.

The club will host its Carnival of Cups meeting this Sunday. The program will include two finals and the Armidale Cup as the feature race.

Leading into the meeting, Armidale hosted three heats of the the Bill Barraclough Memorial last Sunday.

Read also:

Jemma Coney, driving the Garry Shepherdson-trained Montana Nights, had a 1.5m win over the $3.20 race favourite I'm Freya (Tom Ison). Gemma's Express (Blake Hughes) was 5.2m in third place.

"He started pulling away from the others in the end," Coney said of Montana Nights.

In winning the first heat of the series, Coney opened her own account for the Team Teal Appeal with the win - earning $400 for ovarian cancer research.

"Hopefully I can get some more wins for Team Teal. It is great to be an ambassador for a great cause," she said.

Andy and Tom Ison then joined forces with Caesars Rockstar, who took out the second heat with a winning margin of 7.5m over Redbank Olivia (Brad Elder). Eagle Uno (Blake Hughes) was a head away in third place.

"I was pretty confident with this horse," Ison said of Caesars Rockstar, the $2.15 favourite.

The third heat saw Anthony Varga listed as both trainer and driver for Parabellum's win. He beat last-start winner and $2.60 favourite Jogalong Blue (Dean Chapple) by 2.6m, with Sir Macador (Tom Ison) 1.1m away in third place.

"His last couple of runs have been a bit of a worry," Varga said. "I think he is a better horse in front."

Moonbi trainer Dean Chapple then secured a win with Asterism in the Tatts Hotel/Jackson Quality Meats Pace - finishing 3.4m ahead of Dollarsign (Brad Elder). Runfromterror (Jemma Coney) was a short half head away in third place.

"He has been going pretty good without winning and his run at Newcastle last week was really good," Chapple said. "I thought if we could have a bit of luck and get closer today [Sunday], he would probably get the money."

Lovedale visitor Rodney James made the long up the ranges with Rocknroll Tony, and secured a win in the Western Laundromat/Neville's Store Armidale Pace. Ison took the reins.

Rocknroll Tony secured a 4.9m win over Royal Apollo (Blake Hughes), with Knight Walker (Jemma Coney) half head away in third place.

"I thought I had let him go too far from home but he hung on," Ison said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: