Sport
21 May, 2026
Patience turns to gold
Melton raced on Friday with the Shaun and Jason McNaulty trained Zenario getting up in the last stride of his race to win by a short-half-head.
THE win by the Toby Ainsworth trained Zwick at Maryborough on Monday was the first of many for the week for the local area trainers.
Driven by Ada Massa, the eight-year-old was beautifully positioned behind the leader for most of the race.
When that leader tired and drifted up the track, Zwick was able to take the inside run into the lead withstanding a late challenge to win by a neck in a career best time of 1.57.2.
On Wednesday night at Bendigo, the good form of the McNamara and Youngson stables continued with Poppy Popstar bolting in her race for the mare’s eleventh lifetime win.
The seven-year-old daughter of Danny Bouchea, who is trained by Tarah McNamara for herself and husband Jack, won by fourteen meters with a slick mile rate for the 43 to 47 class trot of 1.58.4.
In the following race, the winner was the three-year-old maiden filly Soho Amaryllis who is trained at Charlton by Stephen Clarke and was driven by his son Connor.
The winner was bred by the prolific breeder of winners Robert Watson from WA.
He was coincidentally awarded with the NSW Owner of the Year trophy when the awards for the 2025 season were presented on Sunday.
Melton raced on Friday with the Shaun and Jason McNaulty trained Zenario getting up in the last stride of his race to win by a short-half-head.
The four-year-old was having his fourth start back on the track following a short freshen up after winning its heat and placing third in the final of last year’s 3yo Southern Cross series in South Australia.
D Helbers and P Arnup of Mount Gambier are the owner/breeders of the winner who was driven on Friday by James Herbertson.
On Friday night at Mildura, the opening event on the seven race programme was won by the Mick Gadsden trained, Connor Clarke driven To The Nines.
He sat outside the leader for most of the 2190m trip before drawing away from the opposition at the finish to win by 3.8m. The winner was raced by Mick’s mother Jennie Gadsden and had been a model of consistency before Friday’s success, having been placed in six of his past seven starts.
Sharing success with the family continued in race five with the Zac Steenhuis trained Seaside Show winning for its owners and breeders Donna and Sebastian Steenhuis, Zac’s parents.
The three-year-old filly by Downbytheseaside is from the Steenhuis’s more than handy former race mare Tallulah Bay who won eleven races and prizemoney of $102,444.
Tallulah Bay was trained by Sebastian Steenhuis who drove her to two of her wins and amongst the other winning drivers was Zac Steenhuis who won five times on the mare including her last start on the May 2, 2015 at Melton.
Her biggest success was the Group 2 Tatlow final for two-year-old fillies in 2013 when the winning driver was the late Greg Sugars.
Tonight it’s Bendigo again with a few locals amongst the acceptances, Mildura is on in the daylight hours on Friday and Horsham race on Monday.