It was an exceptional weekend of work for Hawkesbury horsemen Matt Vella and Brad Widdup, who each prepared milestone winners at different tracks amongst a dominant weekend for Hawkesbury-trained horses.
Vella, who has never had more than two or three horses in work at any one time, prepared his first quinella with the aptly-named pair Just Got Lucky and Bella Vella in the opening race at Kembla Grange on Saturday.
The young trainer has for a long time concentrated the bulk of his horsemanship energies into breaking and pre-training sharing a connection with Hawkesbury gun trainer Brad Widdup.
"I break-in and pre-train for a number of leading Sydney trainers, and Brad (Widdup) as well," Vella said of how his career has gone so far.
While Vella's career is just beginning, the blossoming training powerhouse of Brad Widdup hit another high with his first stakes winner at Warwick Farm on Saturday afternoon, courtesy of undefeated, a two-year-old colt Sandbar.
The striking son of Champion stallion Snitzel is owned by Widdup's greatest supporter, Damion Flower, and will now be set for the lucrative $3.5 million G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 24.
Widdup backed up his stakes success with wins to Resort at Newcastle on Sunday and Miami Dade, pictured above, on Friday evening at Canterbury in the feature event, the Evening Star handicap, both for experienced jockey Christian Reith.
With further winners to Hawkesbury's newest training partnership, Mitchell and Desiree Kearney with Final Trick at Bathurst, Wade Slinkard's evergreen stayer Stradazzle, Scott Singleton's Staggering and Brooke Somer's tough mare Baroque at Goulburn late Monday afternoon, lady luck has been kind to the Hawkesbury with marvellous success for both old and new partnerships over the past week.
There was racing at Hawkesbury Race Club yesterday after the Gazette’s deadline.
