Doody lands big double weeks after 500th career win

Stephen Doody didn’t have to think long to remember his last Alexandra Park double after he stunned punters with a 640-1 back to backer on Friday night.

“I don’t think I have ever trained two winners on the same night at The Park,” laughed the 65-year-old.

So that makes two milestones in a month after Doody just recently trained his 500th New Zealand winner, a remarkable effort training out of Palmerston North with the travel challenges that brings.

So not long after first Blue Chip Lou, paying $20, won her first ever right-handed start and then Johnny Who, paying $31, continued his excellent form winning the main trot, Doody was on his way back to Cambridge and then up early on Saturday to return home to Manawatu.

“I was pretty stoked to get to the 500 a few weeks ago,” he says of his recent milestone.

“But it is exciting to have horses who can win up here.

“I don’t mind the travel to Cambridge, its ok, but the traffic is bloody terrible getting from there to Alexandra Park.

“But Johnny Who might have to end up coming back up here a bit more because he is turning into a good trotter.

“He has finally strengthened up and if he could step away every time he’d probably be an open class horse.”

The win was Johnny Who’s ninth and he had to be good to trot his last 800m in 56.5 seconds to grab Hillbilly Blues, who looked home at the 150m and was still a length in front with 50m to run.

JONNY WHO REPLAY

Belle Neige stormed into third suggesting she will be spot on for the upcoming Queen Of Diamonds, the Group 1 for the trotting mares.

The first leg of Doody’s double was just as impressive as Blue Chip Lou came from last, also in the hands of driver Andre Poutama, who drove three winners for the night.

Blue Chip Lou bolted in with a 56 second last 800m and Doody says she has finally grown up and he wasn’t surprised she could win first time right-handed.

“She actually does a lot of her work that way because she can pull up left-handed,” he said.

“She could start down home in the Palmerstonian (Dec 11) but then head back to Cambridge on December 24 because there is a good race there that day for Johnny Who too.”

While Doody had a memorable night so too did Arna Donnelly as she trained the trifecta in the Thames Goldfields Summer Cup.

Jolimont got the lead in the middle stages and held out trailing stablemate Little Spike and The Surfer, with the winner coming off 30m to beat the other two off the 20m mark.

The favourite Captain Sampson made a good recovery after an early break to finish fifth.

Earlier in the night trainer Jason Teaz capped off a great 24 hours or so as he trained his third trotting winner in that time when Stone Cold made it three wins on end with the potential for plenty more to come.

To see Friday’s results click here

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand