Wangaratta trainer Andrew Dale continued the recent trend of Victorian trainers enjoying success in the Southern Districts, saddling up four of the six winners at Leeton on Saturday.
Teaming up with apprentice Ruby Haylock, the pair won with Sheila ($2.90) in the 1050m Benchmark 50 Handicap and Jahbath ($17) in the 1600m Benchmark 58 Handicap.
Dale also helped Jack Martin to a winning double, with the Canberra jockey landing wins on College Dropout ($2.40) in the 1150m Maiden Handicap and Anthemic ($4.80) in the 1150m Benchmark 50 Handicap.
Dale was pleased with the results, and thankful Leeton could host the pop-up meeting following recent abandonments at Albury, Wagga, and Gundagai.
“I think it is the second time I’ve trained four winners at the same meeting,” Dale said.
“I trained four at Corowa’s full TAB meeting last year, and four winners made the trip to Leeton on Saturday very worthwhile.
“It’s an underutilised facility, and when you think about all the cancelled and abandoned meetings we’ve had, and having these tracks that only race two or three times a year, hopefully, the powers that be take notice and give them more race days.
“Plus, we’ll always Leeton because you know you’re going to get a good surface, and they have good facilities, and we’ve always gone okay there.”
Dale was originally meant to team up with Victorian apprentice Rose Hammond at Leeton, and he explained how Haylock came to be riding for the stable after never previously jumping aboard one of his runners.
“We hadn’t used Ruby before, and we had booked Rose Hammond to claim a couple, but she must have had a fall on Friday in Victoria and was stood down,” Dale said.
“Ruby’s manager Dean Walsh rang me and was on the front foot on Friday, and well, we wanted to take the weight of Shelia, and with Jahbath, when we drew a bit wide, we thought we’d take the claim and push forward.”
It wasn’t just Haylock getting the job done at Leeton, with Martin in sublime form.
Since returning from a six-month break on the sideline, Martin has ridden plenty of winners for Dale at Corowa, Wagga, Narrandera, and now Leeton.
“Jack has been in good nick for us, and he’s ridden two (winners) on Chairman’s Choice, one on Shelia, and that double at Leeton, making it five or six winners for us since he returned from that break,” Dale said.
“We’ve got a good relationship with Jack, and he’s a good communicator and jockey, and there’s no reason that good relationship can’t continue.”
In terms of what win meant the most for the stable, Dale didn’t really want to single one out but explained that much work went into getting Anthemic back to the winner’s circle.
“He’s obviously shown a fair bit of ability, and he was a significant purchase as a yearling for the Busuttin and Young stable, and we bought him on Inglis Digital for $8,000, but he needed knee surgery and had complications,” Dale said.
“Most of the ownership group decided to get out of him, and I bought him back for $600, and it’s taken us ten or so weeks to get him right, and that’s because he takes a while to recover, he spends a lot of time swimming and walking.
“Getting him back to winning a race was pleasing for me and the stable’s perspective.”
Following his stable’s good day at Leeton, Dale now has a one-win lead over Albury trainer Mitchell Beer in the 2022/23 Southern Districts Racing Association trainer’s premiership with just two race meetings to go.
Dale, who’s enjoying his best season to date, having prepared 45 winners in 2022/23, won’t be at Wagga on Monday but will trek to Corowa on Monday, April 31.
“We’ll have a good team in at Echuca on Tuesday and Corowa on Monday,” Dale said.
“We’ve easily had our best year, with 45 or 46 winners, and full credit to all the staff, who do a great job, and it would be nice to finish with one or two at Corowa.”
For all results from Leeton, click here.
