Two-year-old filly Rani Major owned by Albion Park Harness Racing Club chairman Kevin and wife Kay Seymour took out the $100,000 Group 1 RQIS 2YO Fillies Final at Albion Park tonight after a brilliant drive from reinsman Barton Cockburn.
Cockburn positioned Rani Major perfectly early in the race by extricating from the inside of the second row, gate eight positioning midfield in the running line.
He then made his move working his way to the death seat and kept the pressure on the leader, race favourite How Will I Know who had little peace after an early burn.
Rani Major took the lead round the bend and broke clear of the brave How Will I Know (Shane Graham) in second and the highly fancied Lady White Water (Lola Weidemann) in third.
Bart Cockburn was very excited to win the first Group 1 of the night, only picking up the drive when fellow reinsman Grant Dixon was too ill to fulfil it.
Cockburn made the winning move at the 1200m mark when he got off the fence and put himself into the winning position.
“Sometimes you have to take a chance in the big races and it either pays off or bites you in the rear end, and tonight it paid off,” he said.
“I was really happy with the whole run, she is a little bit lazy and you really have to work her. I knew I didn’t have the early bird under my belt so I thought if I kept the pressure on, they would do all the work.”
Kevin and Kay later won their second Group 1 of the night when stablemate to Rani Major, Majestic Mach, or Razzle as he is known in the stable, won the Group 1 RQIS 2YO Colts and Geldings Final.
RACING Queensland web news: Elaine Dittman- July 28
Photo by Corey Pearce
