Another record for star driver

Breaking records is almost commonplace for star harness racing trainer-driver Amanda Turnbull these days.

So, bagging five winners at Bathurst on Wednesday night barely raised a ripple for those who keep records.

That’s because Amanda had landed five winners at one meeting an incredible 16 times before Wednesday night’s domination.

And it was the eighth time she had achieved the feat on her home track of Bathurst.

One of her winners, Im Desirable (Betterthancheddar), was trained by her father Steve, who now has trained 3998 winners since he began his career and could notch his 4000^th with nine runners booked to compete at Sunday’s Cowra meeting.

In the meantime, Amanda heads back to Tabcorp Park Menangle on Saturday and has a couple of top hopes.

The best of those looks to be Cruz Bromac (Falcon Seelster), trained by Jason Grimson and listed as the $2.75 early favourite for Race 6, the feature race of the night, the $30,600 Cordina Chicken Farms Gold Mile.

It will be the first time Amanda has driven this impressive horse, who has 25 wins from 62 starts and has won a Len Smith Mile on this track in 1:50.1 when trained by Kevin Pizzuto.

Cruz Bromac has won two from four starts since joining Grimson’s stable and is drawn gate five but comes into four without the, giving him a great chance of finding the front and proving too strong for the Belinda McCarthy-trained veteran Alta Orlando.

Amanda also has her first drive on her own stable newcomer, One Two Many (Captaintreacherous) in Race 5.

Formerly trained by Russell Jack, One Two Many has had just 25 starts for six wins and joins Amanda’s Bathurst stable following a handy fourth to Alby Two Chains at Melton a month ago.

The four-year-old gelding has shown good gate speed at several of his starts and has been kept safe in the betting at $2.75 against a handy field of milers.

Meanwhile, it took ace Menangle reinsman Robbie Morris just one drive to chalk up his 1700^th career win when he came with a perfectly-timed run to score with the well-backed Gee Ef Cee in the opening race at Penrith on Thursday night.

“It only seems like yesterday that I was celebrating 1600 wins,” grinned Morris after Gee Ef Cee cleared out to beat Lavros Midas Touch and Billy Glanvill in a 1:58.9 mile.

To view complete fields for Menangle Saturday, click here.

by Michael Court, for HRNSW