Leading metropolitan jockey Craig Williams boots home Permaiscuous for a syndicate of high-profile owners at Pakenham last Friday. The win was one of three on the program for the super-talented hoop.By Brad Kingsbury
PAKENHAM Racing Club’s meeting last Friday was highlighted by a treble to star jockey Craig Williams, together with the win of Cranbourne galloper Bonython in the feature Bon Hoysted Apprentices Cup.
Williams rode the first three winners on the twilight program before leaving the track to honour engagements at Moonee Valley.
Among the treble was David Hayes’ filly Permaiscuous, which is raced by a syndicate of 44 women, including some of the most prominent ladies in the industry, together with one man – Hawthorn footballer Shane Crawford.
Bonython, trained by master horseman Colin Alderson, was ridden on the pace by apprentice jockey Andrew Mallyon and produced a kick to down two Pakenham-trained gallopers Awakening and Get It Good.
Mallyon joined a list of top-line hoops, including Noel Callow, Steven King, Mark Flaherty and Danny Nikolic, who have won the race and said it was a great honour to have his name listed with theirs.
The Pakenham Gazette Maiden Plate was taken out by the in-form combination of Cranbourne trainer Wendy Kelly and hot district-based jockey Vlad Duric.
Ms Kelly said she had worked hard to bring the best out of the young galloper.
“We’ve always had a bit of an opinion of this horse, but he’s been a bit wayward in his manners and it’s taken us a bit of time to correct that,” the happy trainer said after the victory.
“The (application of) blinkers were a definite advantage but he had to learn to race before we could put them on.
“He worked brilliantly during the week and we knew he’d be hard to beat today,” she said.
Ms Kelly said Palmyra Boy would likely head to a metropolitan race providing he pulled up without effect.
