Keeping Pace: Narrabri Carnival of Cups produces excellent racing

Tamworth reinsman Sam Ison enjoyed the meeting in driving a winning double, firstly for Dubbo trainer Peter Lew behind Willies Dollar (Pet Rock-Second Dollar).

Willies Dollars secured a winning margin of eight metres over Faiselle (Tom Ison), with Rippin Good Feelin (Jamie Donovan) a neck away in third place.

The dam of Willies Dollar - Second Dollar - was raced by the late Gardner family of Gunnedah - in Terry and Elaine and their son Scott - and secured 20 wins in her career.

Those win included a $100,000 Sires Stakes Final at Harold Park back in 2007.

Read also:

Scott Gardner would have been very proud to see the Narrabri win but sadly passed away in February.

Sam Ison won the final event on the Narrabri program when Rolamax claimed the $15,000 Santos Cup. It was the biggest win for the horse, the reinsman and the owners in Neil Kliendienst and Donna Sutherland.

The meeting also saw the return to North West racing of the Weidemann sisters from Queensland in Julie and Lola, who also achieved a winning double for the stables.

The first win was via Astrophilia, a three-year-old Bettors Delight filly, who secured her first career victory in only her fifth race start in taking out the John Dean Memorial.

Astrophilia had a 5.2m win over Imsogood (Scotty-Jon Welsh), with Sheza Tigress Anthony Varga) 18m away in third place.

"The race was one of the main reasons we wanted to come to Narrabri - the John Dean Memorial race is a special part of us," said reinswoman Lola.

"We have won the race before and we were lucky enough this filly came along. She is not big in size but she has got a fine little motor in there."

The second win for the stables was in the following race when Misty Creek, owned by Julie Weidemann, posted a 2.7m win over stablemate and Narrabri-owned Kid Montana (Chris Shepherdson).

The third Queensland runner in the race, Our Major Day (Dayl March), finished 4.9m away in third place.

"This is the first time that this fella (Misty Creek) has met the bigger horses and we didn't really know how he would go. But when he got the right run I had a smile on my face," Lola said.

Richard and Daryl March also enjoyed their first trip to Narrabri Paceway with a winning double secured by Perfect Feeling and Bonnies Cam.

Tom Ison was the lone Tamworth trainer to secure a win at the meeting with Country Major, who notched his second triumph in a week.

+++

The IONA Trotting syndicate, which comprises 27 members - including Tamworth's David Pike, Terry Browne, Mark Lowe, Bob Peterson, Greg and Judy McDonell and Inverell resident Margot Sweeney - are heading to the Elitloppet in Sweden with their trotter Just Believe.

Just Believe won last year's Trotters Inter Dominion.

Trained by Jess Tubbs and driven by her husband Greg Sugars in Victoria, Just Believe has a long journey ahead of him to Sweden before hitting the track on May 28.

Just Believe has become just the third-ever Australian born trotter in the history of harness racing to secure an invitation to the Elitloppet.

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: