BOMBALA and Delegate are celebrating after the Joseph Jones Racing stable took out two wins at the Sapphire Coast Turf Club on Sunday.
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JJR scored the welcome double when Come Closer saluted the judge in the first race and Better Idea won the fourth, on a heavy track at the Merimbula Jazz Festival’s eight-race meet.
Odds on favourite Come Closer ran up to her recent form to score an impressive win in the 2yo and 3yo Maiden Plate over 1250 metres.
With accomplished jockey Michael Travers on board, Come Closer was never in danger and won comfortably by a length and a half.
She has now had a win at Merimbula, a second at Albury and a third at Goulburn from three starts, and is yet another winner for Bill Sexton of Brisbane.
Better Idea won his third race from seven starts when he fought courageously to win the Class 2 Handicap over 1250 metres.
Like Come Closer, Better Idea jumped well and led but was challenged all the way down the straight.
The three-year-old showed good fighting courage to pull away in the last 20 metres to win by a neck and then had to survive a protest by the runner-up.
JJR took four horses to the race day but the heavy conditions took its toll.
“The track was a lot wetter that I thought,” Barbara Joseph said.
Better Idea is raced by a large group of mates, mostly from the Bombala and Delegate area, who purchased him from Mr Sexton several months ago.
“They are mainly young fellows from around Bombala,” Mrs Joseph said.
“I’ve known most of them all their lives.
“As little boys they used to play football in my backyard,” she said.
One member of the syndicate, Graeme Payten, of Delegate, said the syndicate was made up of 20 friends, 10 of whom travelled to Merimbula to see their horse come home in spectacular form.
“We’ve only owned him for five starts and he’s won three,” he said, the most recent win before the weekend being at the Wagga Carnival last month.
“We didn’t know how he’d run on the heavy track, it was a bit of a mystery.”
The horse will be spelled for about three weeks.