Four-year-old mare Jerezana produced a perfect trial for this spring carnival when she won the Ramornie Handicap at Grafton yesterday.
Trainer Peter Snowden has now won both the past two Listed Ramornie Handicaps, with the talented Pinwheel taking out last year’s race.
Jerezana made her run down the final straight to out-sprint her rivals and win by a length ahead of Falco Star and Motspur.
Jockey Andrew Gibbons was thrilled to have been able to ride a winner for the Darley stables.
“It’s my best win by far, it’s fantastic,” Gibbons said.
“I spoke to (jockey) Kerrin McEvoy and Peter Snowden and I had a lot of confidence in what they told me.
“She has an unbelievable last 200 but you can’t push the button too early so I bided my time and it worked out perfectly.”
Snowden was equally pleased with the mare’s lightning fast run.
“Everything went perfect,” he said.
“It’s a great race to win and to be able to win it twice in a row gives me a big buzz.
“She was able to stay in touch, even at the back of the field she wasn’t that far from them.
“Andrew was able to cut the corner and get to the outside which she likes to do.
“If she can be saved for one short, sharp burst invariably she runs well and that was the case today.
“Everything just panned out for her.”
Jerezana has turned her luck around after finishing 13th out of just 16 runners in the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic Stakes at Ipswich last start , where she had to be vetted after the race.
“She’s been stakes-placed on two occasions so to get a stakes win today is very good,” Snowden said.
“She campaigned at Scone then went to Brisbane and then Ipswich and had that debacle there.
“She came home from that and has been here a fortnight and then went up there (Grafton) last night and ran the race of her life today, so she’s a pretty tough horse.”
The opportunities are now there for Jerezana to continue her impressive runs with a successful spring campaign in Sydney and Melbourne.
