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Gosford trainer Tony Newing and leading Northern Rivers jockey Matt McGuren finished the Grafton carnival on a high on Sunday when they added more wins to their excellent results over the five meetings.
Newing was a force to be reckoned with over the carnival, carrying off the leading trainer award for the second successive year.
Newing won five races from his 10 runners over the carnival with all of his winners partnered by McGuren.
McGuren was a clear winner of the leading jockey award, riding nine winners over the five days to extend his unbeatable lead for this season's Northern River Racing Assocation premiership title.
Newing and McGuren combined for two wins on the opening day of the carnival on June 30 including the Grafton Guineas Prelude with Charmed Princess.
That filly then gave Newing his biggest Grafton win when she landed the $80,000 Grafton Guineas (1600m) on the Ramornie Handicap program on July 10.
Newing and McGuren also combined for a win with Tainted Affair on June 30 and In Fiore on South Grafton Cup day on July 7.
In Fiore capped a big carnival for Newing when he landed his second win in seven days in the final race of the carnival at the Maclean Cup meeting on July 14.
"We've certainly had a pretty good run at Grafton," Newing said. "I won three races at last year's carnival and I think we've won nine races in all at Grafton over the last year so it's been a great track for us.
"Matt has been riding for me for about two years and I think we've probably won about 50 per cent of the races when we team up."
The trainer has had only In Fiore for three starts. He was formerly trained at Scone by Brett Cavanough before he was sold and joined Newing's yard in May.
McGuren capped his big carnival with a double on the final day including the feature Maclean Cup on the favourite Evopoex for Coffs Harbour trainer Jim Jarvis.
McGuren's nine wins over the carnival have taken him to 52 wins on the NRRA table, 15 clear of second placed Ben Looker. He also wrapped up the Clarence River Jockey Club premiership with 24 Grafton wins for the season, six more than Looker.
John Shelton was the leading local trainer at the carnival with three wins, taking him to third place on the NRRA premiership with 27 wins behind Murwilumbah's Matt Dunn (49.5 wins) and Stephen Lee (27) but giving him another Grafton title with 18 wins, three more than Dunn.
Grafton product Ben Looker rode only two winners over the carnival but they included a hometown career highlight in the $160,000 Grafton Cup on young NZ stayer Sacred Day for Kiwi trainer Tony Pike.
Pike is the ninth New Zealander, domiciled in either NZ or Australia, to train a Grafton Cup winner since 1973.
Other winners at the Grafton came from widespread stables across NSW and Queensland including Warwick Farm, Kembla Grange, Gosford, Wyong, Scone, Tamworth, Taree, Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, Casino, Coffs Harbour, Ballina, Beaudesert, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast.
