There was no more deserving win at Cromwell today than that of Macandrew Aviator (Panspacificflight).

It was not only his first win in a long time (905 days), but it was the perfect way for the horse’s trainer Jeremy Douglas and one of the gelding’s principal owners Megan Reidie who have just married, to celebrate the occasion.

“Megan and I got married three weeks ago and planned that this was as good as it was going to get as far as a honeymoon was going to go. We’ve been to Aussie a couple of times within the last year so we settled on this,” Douglas said.

It was the nine year old geldings first win since September 2023 and the first for Douglas who’s trained the gelding since March last year.

“It’s taken a while for us to get him to drop back. He’s one of the victims of the re-rating of horses. He wasn’t quite good enough to go with the good horses and he had to go off long marks when he raced against anything else.”

After beginning well off the twenty metre mark in todays $20,000 McNulty Transport Cromwell Fruit Bowl, driver Hayden Douglas positioned Macandrew Aviator back on the inside running line before he moved him forward to sit parked. Inside the last 400 he began to pressure the leader Tabasco with Bettor Way stalking the pair.

Inside the last 50 metres Douglas got the best out of Macandrew Aviator and he got up to beat Bettor Way by a head with Tabasco a neck back in third. The fourth horse was seven and a half lengths away.

MACANDREW AVIATOR REPLAY

The race was marred when hot favourite Beach Day broke losing all chance.

“He hasn’t been an easy horse to manage. He’s had lots of little issues. Nothing super serious but very annoying. He’s been a bit painful to keep right, but he’s Megan’s favourite so we’ll put up with that.”

Douglas said he doesn’t have any serious goals for Macandrew Aviator.

“I see him as a horse that’s done a great job for the owners, mostly in Canterbury and now is a chance for him to race locally for a while and pick up a bit of money where he can and look at smaller targets.”

It was a good day for Hayden Douglas. He drove the Matt Brinsdon trained Always A Menace (Always B Miki) to win the Hygain – Revel Douglas Memorial Series Mobile Pace.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink