3 minute read

Two jockeys dominated Sunday’s Devonport meeting with Brendon McCoull kicking home three winners and apprentice Erica Byrne Burke riding a double on the eight-race card.

Multiple winners are nothing new for the 14-time premiership winning, and current premiership leading Brendon Mccoull, but for Erica Byrne Burke it was a welcome return to form.

"It was good to get the double today, it's been a bit quiet all right," Byrne Burke said after kicking home the last two winners.

It was the first double for Byrne Burke since she won on Wanes Quest and Klatten in Launceston in early February and her winning ride aboard Incriminate was close to 10 out of 10. The Irish born apprentice took the 5YO straight to the lead in the 1650m Carlton Draught BM64, dictated terms perfectly, before upping the tempo at the 600m mark.

"He's a horse who likes to go through his gears during his races, he's pretty nice to ride actually, you just let him bowl out in front and when he's on par he does the job, and he does it well.

"It's always the plan with him to try and get the rest off the bridle and try and get a kick on the corner and that's what he did."

Emphasising how good the ride was, Incriminate ($5) was a little more than half a second outside the track record and won by 2.5 lengths.

Incriminate was the first leg of Byrne Burke's double but it was the second win of the day for her master Adam Trinder who won earlier with promising 4YO Seydoux ($4.80) who made it two from two since joining his stable.

Byrne Burke completed her double with Ring Of Honour who despite a betting drift, ($7 to $9.50) stormed home to win the Thai Imperial BM60 over 1350m.

"He was actually dragging me though the race on the corner and was really good."

The Rowan Hamer trained 6YO was a little wayward in the straight and the young jockey was being questioned by stewards well after correct weight had been announced.

For McCoull, it was a typical 'day at the office'. He had only five rides for his three winners, two for trainer Leanne Gaffney and one for Adam Trinder (Seydoux).

His wins for Gaffney were aboard Duncannon ($2.30 fav) in The Stables At Spreyton Maiden (1150m), and the highly promising Cornelian Bay ($2.80 fav) in the Tasmanian Horse Transport BM60, also over 1150m

"Duncannon is a really promising horse, a lovely athletic horse, he wasn't unlucky last start, but I thought he put the writing on the wall to be very hard to beat today and he did the job well," McCoull said.

The 4YO had been placed at five of his seven starts before his breakthrough win.

Cornelian Bay was also well backed firming from $3.40 to start favourite at $2.80. He is unbeaten (3/3) while fresh and looks to have a bright future.

"He's a really promising horse, I was a little worried about the inside gate with him which ended up being a big favour to the horse.

"He's a big boy who is still learning his trade so I was just hopeful that he wouldn't get held up and he didn't and he did the rest, he was very good today."