Sport
28 October, 2021
Craven lands feature double
ECKLIN trainer Matthew Craven walked away with two notable wins at Geelong’s metro meeting on Saturday night.
ECKLIN trainer Matthew Craven walked away with two notable wins at Geelong’s metro meeting on Saturday night.
The trainer landed a feature race double, with two year-old Heza Son Of A gun winning the $50,000 Tatlow Stakes and Aldebaran Tess winning the McNamara Memorial Trotters Cup.
Aldebaran Tess, a four year-old mare out of Muscle Hill, pipped stablemate Queen Of Crime and fellow local A Jewel In The Crown on the line of the $14,500 event.
Craven’s partner, Sofia Arvidsson, had the winning drive, with the trainer driving Queen of Crime in the event.
“We went there knowing the horses were well but weren’t really expecting a hell of a lot because they were strong races,” Craven said.
“In the trotters cup both horses were super and for them to have their first go at the stand and quinella the cup was a great result for the team.
“Tess is one we rate really highly and think at some stages there will be bigger things from here but for her to show her ability in track record time was a great result.
“She wasn’t entitled to win but all three of the locals did pretty good. Queen of Crime did a lot of the work and only just went down but it was a really positive result for the mares.”
Heza Son Of Agun earned handy black type by winning the group two event with a trademark sprint to the line.
The colt, out of Art Major, had drawn the inside second row but was brought to the outside by Arvidsson at the right time to upstage a quality field.
“He was super. The draw didn’t suit to where he wanted to sit but as it turned out it was exactly where he needed to be,” Craven said.
“To his credit, we don’t expect to be winning these types of races, but he’s just a great little two year-old racehorse, that’s his biggest key.
“They went fairly solid down the back which opened it up and took the sting out of a couple and he had the quiet run on the three fence and capitalized.
“It was really pleasing result for the Coniglios (Tony and Pam), which we touched on last week. They’re a big part of our stable so it was really good to get a nice result for them with a two year-old they have bred.”
Craven said he expected Heza Son Of Agun to progress towards the Breeders Crown Series and VicBred Super Series in the latter months of the year.