Apprentice Sarah Field remains unbeaten in three rides on Vincent Malady-trained horses after posting successive wins on My Mate Sonny at Hamilton.
The eight-year-old’s victory in Tuesday’s Pearsons Nursery BM64 Hcp (1600m) was a carbon copy of the gelding’s last start at Donald on November 17 when, ridden by the 2-kilo claiming apprentice, he ended a 19-race losing streak.
Six days earlier, Sarah had her first ride for the stable on Easy Jay who won at Warrnambool on November 11.
“Hopefully we can keep the winning run going,” Sarah said.
Just as she had last start, Sarah settled My Mate Sonny ($4.40) outside the leader and shot him clear in the home straight before holding off a late challenge from favourite Mawkeb ($2.40) to score by a half-length.
Sarah said My Mate Sonny can be a bit quirky, and she got a good insight into the horse when he won at Donald.
“I’m glad that I had that ride on him as he is a big goofy thing and he does have a little bit of a look around and think about it,” Sarah said.
“We had to do a little bit of work to get to where we did today, but I knew he would come right back underneath me, and I just used that hill a little bit to his advantage (to set up a break in the straight).”
“I heard Will Gordon coming late (on Mawkeb) but my horse fought hard and was really tough.”
My Sonny Mate has won 12 of his 56 starts in his career which started in Port Lincoln where he landed eight races and another at Morphettville.
He has now won three races since joining the Malady stable in December 2022, including the Port Fairy Cup in record time at Warrnambool and has been a money spinner for Darren Walker and his co-owners with $259,820 in prizemoney.