Friday was an especially memorable day for Barbara Joseph, who enjoyed the Joseph Jones Racing Race Day and owner’s luncheon at Canberra by training a winning double and celebrating 50 years as a trainer.
On a good day for the stable, Barb, along with her sons Paul and Matt Jones, watched on as the impressive Think I Do ($6.50) powered to an emphatic 3.4 length win in the 2000m Class One Plate.
Ridden by apprentice Claire Ramsbotham, the 4YO So You Think mare still sprinted quickly following a tough run and powered to victory.
Paul Jones was almost lost for words following the result.
“For a majority of the race I was worried, until the corner, and then when she put three or four on them, that’s a turn of foot I’ve never seen from her, especially this deep into the preparation,” he said.
“I really don’t know how to think about that. The win was so dominant.”
Later on the card, Belleistic Kids (Billy Owen, $9) went back-to-back in the same race he won last year and recorded his seventh career victory in the 1300m TAB Federal Legend’s Path.
Owen rode the 6YO The Brothers War gelding aggressively from gate nine, and the pair proved too good in the end, winning by a half-length.
It was another great Joseph Jones Racing Race Day, celebrating one of the most magnificent women in racing, who in 1989, wrote herself into the history books as the first woman to train the winner of the Group 1 Doncaster with Merimbula Bay.
