FROM tick attacks and poison to speed attacks and wins - after a tough start to their Queensland campaign things are now looking brighter for Chris and Anthony Frisby.
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On Saturday night the Bathurst father-son, trainer-driver picked up a race-to-race double at Albion Park, easing some of the tension they had felt over the health of the team they took north.
"We've had a real tough year up here, the horses got attacked by ticks up here and it set us back real bad actually," Anthony Frisby said.
"They are just getting over it now, but for about a month they were getting attacked by ticks and had poison in their system. So it's been a pretty stressful time, but hopefully they are getting over it and we're in top of it."
The first half of the winning double came when two-year-old He Aint Fakin saluted as the $1.40 favourite, Frisby saying the gelding "went super sonic" as he peeled off a 27.2 seconds final sectional.
But even more rewarding was when Uncle Jord won 30 minutes later, beating home hot $1.55 favourite Amazing Dream by half a neck.
After going from barrier five, Frisby guided Uncle Jord three wide and as the bell sounded, he had the lead.
He peeled off 27.5 and 27.8 sectionals in his run home to clock a 1:52.3 mile rate, hold off the favourite and take his record at Albion Park this season to two wins, a pair of seconds and a fifth.
"He is a nice horse, but a very hard horse to keep right to be honest, he's probably the hardest horse we've ever had to train," Frisby said.
"I just thought the only way I could beat the favourite was if I did 'catch me if you can' up the front, get to the front and make them run pretty hard up the back.
"If it sat on us, you wouldn't beat it. For us to do it, I knew we had to run that sort of speed - that's what we tried to do and it worked out alright.
"His first two runs up there he'd been going 50s and chasing, so he can run the time, he just never has any luck with draws, he always seems to draw outside that nice horse.
"He finally had the good draw Saturday night, it just goes to show when you're up in that sort of class the draw does count for a fair bit."
