After a frustrating run of luck in recent weeks, Paul Court finally had the chance to smile about two of his stable stars over the weekend.

And for Mongolian Storm in particular, there was a step towards redemption after what transpired during Cup Week.

The smart three-year-old colt was considered a contender for the Sires’ Stakes Final on Cup Day and all was going well until he kicked out in the score up and got both back legs over the bar near the top of the dust sheet on his cart.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before, it was pretty bizarre” Court said.

Mongolian Storm was late scratched after the incident – a bitter pill for Court to swallow and also his owners, the Inner Mongolia Horse Rider Group.

“It was a hard one to explain to them, but they were pretty good about it.

“We still had the horse at the end of the day and that was the main thing.”

After a bit of rest and recuperation, Mongolian Storm returned to Addington on Friday night and dished up a grand first up performance to beat off a good field of pacers – going someway to beginning the process of redeeming for the Cup Day incident.

“I thought he was very good, especially considering he really was first up for a month.

“He probably deserved to knock up a little there in the last couple of hundred metres but he actually surged again which really impressed me.”

In a nifty bit of a driving, Ricky May was able to extricate the colt away from the fence early in proceedings and then found the front with little problems shortly after – it proved to be a winning move with Mongolian Storm too strong in the run to the line – winning the third race on his career.

Then on Saturday, there were more cheers in Mongolia when Brilliant Strike got his winning groove back to claim the $18,500 Geraldine Cup after a titanic length of the straight battle with Classie Brigade.

It’s been a pretty tumultuous campaign for the dour pacer with a win at Addington prior to Cup Week the only real shining light – but the imposing entire signalled he might be in for a nice summer with his win on Saturday.

“He was good I thought, we are finally getting on track with him and he is racing like he should be racing.

“We can target a few of these summer features with him now and hopefully have a bit of fun.”

With Classie Brigade in front running them along, Brilliant Strike had to work hard for Blair Orange but was able to get past the talented pacer in the final stages of the race to claim the victory.

“He wants to be out there and fighting,” Orange said.

“At the moment he seems really well suited to a race like the Invercargill Cup.”

Orange was also in the bike of Saturday’s other big winner, Buster Brady, who had to pull out all his class to win fresh up from a brave Franco Texas.

The Kyle Austin trained pacer has come back big and strong and should be in for a good season.

Matt Markham