ENIGMATIC galloper Bianco Rossa has a few tricks up his sleeve – but not when leading jockey Dan Ballard is in the saddle.
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Ballard guided the Damien Finter-trained eight-year-old, owned by popular pair Lindsay Miller (Undilla Station) and Lloyd Hick (Thorntonia Station), to victory in the Camooweal Cup (1400metres) on Saturday.
The win maintained Ballard’s unblemished strike rate of three wins from as many rides on Bianco Rossa.
Well supported in the betting ring into $3 second favourite, Ballard positioned his mount perfectly from barrier 2 and navigated a path along the fence in the straight to reel in The Gallows.
Bianco Rossa won by 1.3lengths with newcomer to the region The Gallows ($1.80 favourite) holding on to second spot after skipping away to the lead in the straight.
Finter was elated his galloper could return to form in the cup.
“He can chuck in a shocker every now and again but we freshened him up a bit and Dan rode him beautiful,” he said.
Bianco Rossa was beaten by 16 lengths on Mailman raceday in Mount Isa two weeks earlier.
Ballard’s win in the cup was a race-to-race double after he steered the heavily backed Bullrama to victory in the Benchmark 60 Handicap (1200m).
Bullrama found plenty under Ballard’s urgings as he rushed past stablemate More Dust with his father, Keith, in the saddle.
Ready To Dazzle ($3 favourite) was a tearaway winner for Keith Ballard and trainer Dawn Sanderson in the opener (900m Maiden plate).
Flying Indy scored an easy victory in the Benchmark 55 Handicap (900m) for jockey Aaron Spradau and trainer Grant Wiles.
Perhaps the most impressive win of the day came when the Jay Morris-trained Whetstone carried the grandstand to win the Benchmark 70 Handicap.
Whetstone ($1.80 favourite) carried 62kg to score for jockey Tamara Tincknell.