AMANDA Turnbull may not have visited the Bathurst Paceway as regularly this season as in the past, but the combination of her driving skills and some talented runners has still seen her make an impact.
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On Wednesday night when the now Menangle-based trainer-driver attended the Bathurst Harness Racing Club meeting, she took out the first three races driving for her father Steve Turnbull.
By the end of the night, the The Lagoon native’s tally of winning drives stood at five.
It was an effort which lifted her to the top of Bathurst’s driving premiership for season 2015-16, Turnbull boasting a tally of 43 victories to sit just ahead of Mat Rue (40).
It was four-year-old gelding Oh I Am The One which gave her the lead in that premiership battle when he took out the Lexus Of Dubbo Pace (1,730 metres).
The $2.30 favourite showed strength to hold off stablemate Intransit ($6.70, Nathan Turnbull), winning by a half head after a good battle down the straight.
Third belonged to Lamorak ($34.60, Steve Turnbull), making it a trifecta for Steve Turnbull’s stables.
“It was a big run,” Amanda Turnbull said.
“He took awhile to come back [from a spell], he had a confidence run last week and was good tonight. I thought he went a bit hard, but he held on.”
As Turnbull indicated, the speed was on from the outset.
Intransit flew off the arm to temporarily lead after going from barrier two, but stablemate Oh I Am The One also began well and soon zipped to the front.
Once there, the son of Gotta Go Cullen applied the pressure, clocking splits of 29.3 and 28.2 seconds for the first half of the last mile.
As the bell sounded to signal a lap to go, the favourite led by a length over Chal Fire, while Intransit sat in the trail.
With 500m to go Oh I Am The One had shaken off the challenge of Chal Fire and led by 1½ lengths over Intransit, but it was by no means job done.
As Chal Fire faded, it gave Intransit room to move. Into the final bend he came out of the trail and mounted a challenge outside Oh I Am The One.
Native Casear was still in reach on the favourite’s back at the top of the home straight, but both Oh I Am the One and Intransit soon pulled away from the chasing pack.
Nathan Turnbull got his chance within a head of the lead, but his sister held on to win with the favourite.
Oh I Am The One clocked back-to-back splits of 29.1 in the run home for a 1:55.2 mile rate.
The win was his eight from 14 starts this season, his good run of form also including a pair of second placings.
As well as Oh I Am The One, Turnbull’s list of winners for the evening included Sabrage, Missed By Red, Dillon and Freddy Funk.
