ONLY a few metres stood between Jeffrey Felix and a poignant moment in racing last Saturday.
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Last year Felix rode the card at Prairie and last weekend he got within two lengths, or about six metres, of winning all six events at Cloncurry.
It continues a hot streak for Felix who also won three of five races at Mount Isa's St Patrick's Day meet the weekend before and two at the same venue's beach races two week's prior.
Amid all the tropical fashions at Cloncurry Felix won on the Jay Morris-trained stablemates Favra and Power Station, Mahkota Rose for the Melissa Bien stable, Jason Babarovich's Bold Sam and Night Attire, which comes out of the Shryn Royes yard.
His only loss for the day was aboard Kapset, a stablemate to Night Attire.
Felix could not credit his luck to get so close to riding the meeting for a second time, a feat some racing fans suggest had a tinge of uniqueness.
"I didn't give myself a chance of riding more than two," Felix said.
"I thought Jay Morris' two could win and they did but the others came as a real surprise because I doubted a few of them would handle the dust.
"They'd failed at Mount Isa where they resented the kick-back and with the dust at the 'Curry I thought their chances were close to zero.
"But I was wrong and I'm pretty chuffed about that because I didn't think I would ever ride so many in a day again."
Four-year-old Mahkota Rose (Mahisara-Kota USA) opened Felix's winning account in the opener, the Cloncurry and District Race Club Maiden Plate (1000m). Starting as the $1.80 favourite, she scraped in by a nose over Sun Lily.
Favra (Dissident-Gleams) went to the post as a $1.70 favourite for the Joe and Pauline Bakhash Memorial (1000m) and was untroubled to win by nearly four lengths.
Punters waded into Power Station ($1.60 favourite) and the son of Rubick and Sami Queen scored by a length in the Garry Cannon Memorial Class 1 (1200m).
The seven-year-old Bold Sam (Al Samer-Gudwill) was Felix's "roughie" for the day, winning the Curley Cattle Transport Class 6 Plate (1200m) by more than two lengths as a $7 chance.
Night Attire, a nine-year-old by Pins from Pyjamas, rounded out his winning card in the Thynne + Macartney Benchmark 55 Handicap (1400m) despite lumping 61.5kgs.
There was some irony in Felix's only losing ride on the day.
Bush marvel Keith Ballard rained on the Felix parade by beating him home in the Haulmark Trailers Open (1200m).
At Prairie back in August it was Ballard who surrendered a winner to Felix because he was dehydrated and allowed the Townsville-based rider to make a clean sweep of the five races after having only four bookings when the meeting began.
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