David Smith, whose 95 winners in 2020 gave him his most successful 12 months as a trainer, has started the new year with a bang and had a hand in three of the 10 winners at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
Smith owns the Peter Mantach-trained Trendy Ethics, who won in 30.54, and trains budding National Futurity candidates Ice Cream Story and Me Me Mia, who led throughout in 29.76 and 30.06.
Ice Cream Story's figures were the fastest of the night and, assisted by an amazingly brilliant getaway, she carved out an electrifying first split of 5.38.
Ice Cream Story was resuming from a let-up but Smith declared before Saturday night's race that the bitch had performed well in two 400m trials at Bulli leading up to her comeback race.
A March 2019 whelping, Ice Cream Story is eligible for the heats of the Group 1 Ladbrokes National Futurity at Wentworth Park on January 15, while Me Me Mia, who posted a slick initial split of 5.42 on her way to winning in 30.02 on Saturday, is an October 2018 puppy so is also the right age for the bitches' classic.
Saturday's Free-For-All saw the Mark Gatt-trained Ritza Coen lift his earnings to the six figure mark, with the win, the dog's 10th in 27 Wentworth Park races, taking his prizemoney to more than $104,000.
"Ritza Coen's record would be even better but for his habit of refusing to go around another dog, he waits for rails runs,'' Gatt said.
"When he got into third place on the back straight tonight I thought to myself, he will win from there, but next minute he was running into the back of Poacher, who was on the rails and trailing the pacemaker Ebby Infrared.''
Ironically Ritza Coen's kennelmate Shanjo Prince helped the winner, as he was third at the first turn but veered off the track and knocked Winlock on Top, who was running fourth, out of the race.
Ritza Coen was fifth at that point but grabbed the rails run when Shanjo Prince headed for the outside fence.
Twisted Again, who had been placed in five of six previous Wentworth Park starts, broke through for a well earned first city win when he led throughout for trainer Stuart Hazlett in 30.32.
"When he arrived in my kennels Twisted Again had won just two small races and his early efforts for me were not encouraging,'' Hazlett said.
"In one of his first trials for me he clocked the very slow time of 23.80 over 400m at Richmond.
"It was only because the dog's owner Andrew Geldart had paid two months' training fees in advance, that I hung on to Twisted Again.
"But from that point on Twisted Again gradually improved and he has become a handy dog.
"He likes Wenty, he can get out of a box, and he is a keen Chaser who tries hard all the time.''
Ad Astra, unlucky not be in Sunday's Woy Woy Poultry Gold Cup final at Gosford, maintained his unbeaten Wentworth Park record with a strong 29.95 win on Saturday.
The litter brother and kennelmate to Wow has now won nine of 12 starts and is undefeated in three Wentworth Park appearances.
Another dog eliminated from last Sunday's Gosford Cup heats, Sanctify, posted second quickest time of the night on Saturday with an all-the-way win in 29.79.
A recent addition to the growing ownership of Shakeel Latimer, who races the 2020 TAB Million Dollar Chase winner Handsome Prince, Sanctify looked to relish box eight by spearing to the lead at box rise and winning easily.
