O’Briens sweep Tontines

A feature harness racing win on a home track is always a massive thrill for an owner, trainer or driver. To win two though, on the same program, well – that’s something else.

This is exactly what Armstrong trainer Leroy O’Brien did in Ararat on Wednesday night.

He captured the $25,000 Ararat Advocate Tontine Pacing Championship with promising three-year-old Blake Bolac (Sunshine Beach) and $25,000 Premix King Ararat Tontine Trotting Championship with Sir Eros.

O’Brien emulates the great Peter Manning as a trainer to secure the Tontine double in the one season.

Manning saluted with pacer Chase A Dream and pacer Lombo Rapida in 1999.

Blake Bolac and Sir Eros also provided Jason Lee with the first two legs of a winning treble.

O’Brien said what made the achievement even more special was that he had he shared the whole racing journey with the duo.

“They’ve been broken in at home and done everything with us,” O’Brien said.

Back Bolac led and went away to score by 9.5m from Jilliby Retro, with Art Jester a close third.

The son of Sunshine Beach is unbeaten in three starts this season and has a career record of seven wins in 12 starts for $52,000, having won a Vicbred Super Series semi-final last season.

O’Brien said despite not having a great action and being lazy and moping along, he was a lovely horse.

“He might not be up to the best (of his age), but we’re going have a lot of fun with him,” O’Brien said with age classics in mind. “He’s going to be a nice horse.”

Sir Eros (Creatine) started off 20m and then charged home after being four-wide on the turn to win by 8.6m from Baxter, with Gee Cee Calder third.

The lightly raced four-year-old now has five wins in 13 starts for $42,118 in earnings.

O’Brien said he had had to be patient with Sir Eros owing to some leg issues, but the Tontine performance confirmed this approach would pay off in the long term.

“He’ll repay us (for the patience). He’ll go to city class.”

O’Brien said he had been considering taking Sir Eros to the Queensland Constellations Carnival, but had decided against that. He said a country cups campaign was his most likely course this season.

O’Brien said Sir Eros had shown he could be temperamental, but all the signs were that he was now starting to become a racehorse.

“He’s trotting as well as he ever has.”

For complete race results, click here.

by David Brehaut for Harness Racing Victoria