A brilliant ride from the talented Kayla Crowther yesterday at Sandown gave South Australia our sixth title in the National Apprentice Race Series.
The five leg series began in Launceston a month ago and wrapped up on Wednesday at Sandown.
Team SA started slowly in Launceston with Alice Lindsay only managing a point for SA in the first race of the series. In a cruel twist of fate, fellow South Australian Gary Lo actually claimed the first leg in Tasmania on John Luttrell’s Pontypaul but as he wasn’t the nominated SA jockey, his victory didn’t count towards our total.
We fared a bit better over in Western Australia with Anna Jordsjo netting us two points but at the end of the second leg, we were 11 points behind the runaway leaders, Queensland.
Enter the state’s leading jockey, Raquel Clark who had no troubles winning on the $2.60 race favourite, Dream Kisses for Tony Gollan at Doomben. Her seven points took our total to 10 for the series and we were starting to slowly peg back Queensland on 17.
Gary Lo continued his great form in the series and caused a minor upset when he steered home $10 chance Lucky Wick for Wayne Francis & Glen Kent. It was a strong showing by the SA riders in our home leg at Strathalbyn with Caitlin Jones running second and rookie Taylor Farrugia running fourth.
We entered the final leg at Sandown one point behind Queensland and two ahead of Victoria. From the top of the straight it was never going to anyone but Kayla Crowther claiming the race aboard See Me Exceed as she smashed her rivals in the final race for Mick Price.
It was a great team effort by all the riders who represented Team South Australia and we look forward to defending our NARS title again in 2020.
Date |
Location |
Rider |
Finishing Position |
NARS Points |
9 March |
Launceston, Tasmania |
Alice Lindsay |
12th |
1 |
13 March |
Ascot, Western Australia |
Anna Jordsjo |
7th |
2 |
20 March |
Doomben, Queensland |
Raquel Clark |
1st |
7 |
27 March |
Strathalbyn, South Australia |
Gary Lo |
1st |
7 |
3 April |
Sandown, Victoria |
Kayla Crowther |
1st |
7 |
Team |
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Round 4 |
Round 5 |
Total Points |
South Australia |
1 |
2 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
24 |
Queensland |
7 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
19 |
Victoria |
5 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
18 |
Western Australia |
2 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
14 |
Tasmania |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
11 |
Northern Territory |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
6 |