Above: Mornington horse Little Baldy ridden by Vlad Duric was a runaway winner of the Open Handicap feature race last week.– Brad Kingsbury
SPRING has held its share of ups and downs for one of Victoria’s premier jockeys Danny Nikolic, but he put his recent troubles behind him last Thursday to boot home the first four winners on the card at Cranbourne.
Nikolic got into the rhythm with victory on Matt Hyland’s gelding Tully Spur in race one, the Class 3 Handicap and followed that up with three wins in the next three events on Lee Freedman-trained runners Rainer ($1.60), Conjoin ($1.50) and Tenfold ($4.40).
He also finished second on another Freedman mount in the fifth race of the day.
Nikolic missed a significant part of the spring racing action after being suspended by stewards in October, but has hit top form quickly with Freedman giving him the opportunity to work his way back at the Cranbourne meeting.
Sandown Classic winning trainer Robbie Laing continued his stable’s great recent run with victory by his four-year-old gelding Venti Sette, which started at $22 in the Class 1 Handicap.
Ridden by apprentice Peter Hamilton, Venti Sette was rated well over the 1400-metre trip and hugged the rail in the straight to take first place in a close finish.
