The retirement of the great Feral Franky left a temporary gap in trainer Jack Smith's kennels but the FORBES trainer has bounced back with an outstanding young team and returned out west after winning a treble on Saturday night at Wentworth Park.
Smith's Jungle Deuce (pictured) maintained his unblemished record when he scored a tenacious fourth win in as many starts in 30.14, slower than his previous best figures of 30.09, but understandable considering he was hampered crossing to the rails from box seven.
Smith pulled the right rein in opting to by-pass tomorrow night's Bathurst Cup heats to take Dip It In to Wentworth Park with the dog coming from fourth at box rise to lead at the first turn before winning by seven lengths in a fast 29.89.
Despite another slow getaway, a trait that has had Smith worried, Irinka Riley gave the trainer his third winner when he railed through to the lead at the first turn and also posted 29.89.
Brian Jaggers, owner of Dip It In and part-owner of Jungle Deuce, said: "I paid $6000 for Dip It In when he was a puppy, taking advice from a friend that he was from a litter that promised to be good.''
The John Finn-trained Zipping Pearson also won in 29.89, after leading all the way and posting slick early splits of 5.46 and 13.96.
"She has shown early pace from the moment we started training her and she has broken 30sec twice now, which will please her owner Marty Hallinan because he is keen to use her as a brood bitch later on,'' Finn said.
But by far the quickest time on Saturday night was the 29.65 recorded by the David Smith-trained Ice Cream Story, who nailed the start and led throughout, putting sectionals of 5.46 and 13.86 behind her and then running home in a strong 11.70.
Ice Cream Story was the unlucky runner when fourth in last week's Ladbrokes National Futurity final, after missing the start and finding trouble from box eight.
"She has now won six from 11 at Wentworth Park and tonight showed what she could do when she gets away cleanly,'' Smith said later.
"I only wish she could have come out like she did tonight when she was in the Futurity final.''
Arctic Kingdom, a litter brother Mark Moroney's top class sprinters FireLegend and Fire On Ice, opened his Wentworth Park account by winning Saturday's opening race in 30.24.
"I knew Peyton May, who had box one, would want to move wide and because Arctic Kingdom drew two he needed either to win the start or miss the kick and sit behind the red going to the first turn,'' Moroney said.
"He did the latter and got a dream run when the three leaders came together, going to the lead coming through the catching pen.
"In trials Arctic Kingdom has only ever been a length or two inferior to Fire On Ice but he has had a lot of niggling minor injuries which have restricted his career which meant he was only having his third run at Wenty tonight.''
Also notching his first Wentworth Park win on Saturday was Good Odds Rebel, who had been placed in each of three previous races at headquarters but led all the way this time in 30.23.
After the race trainer Andrew Bell said: "I thought my dog or Murdoch Keeping would lead at the first turn and luckily Good Odds Rebel was able to jump in front.
"When he led I knew he would beat hard to beat but I was worried when I saw Forner Rising move into third place leaving the back straight, because he is a very good dog.
"But Good Odds Rebel kept kicking on and deserved to win one here after being so honest in each of his three previous start.''
Double Bluff, trained by Jason Mackay for David Harvey, the son-in-law of leading thoroughbred trainer Peter Snowden, scored her second 720m Wentworth Park win in 10 days when she led throughout in a smart 42.12.
That was a sharp improvement on her debut 720m win in 42.50, when she led and was headed before coming again to score.
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