HE might not be playing rugby league this season, but Doug Hewitt can still steal the spotlight by scoring a hat-trick.
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On Friday night at the Dubbo Paceway Hewitt drove half the program as he won aboard Marvella, Far Out Ringo and Blue Chip Money.
He was actually first past the post on Bridge Coin as well, but was relegated to second after a successful protest for interference.
The Jake Davis driven Turbo Tommy was declared the victor and while Hewitt would have loved to have added a win in that race to his Dubbo haul, he wasn't too disappointed.
"My horse was sort of running up the track a bit and I let him run up the track as Jake Davis came to me, so he got a fair way up the track and sort of impeded his run," Hewitt said.
"Either way, I guess if I didn't do it I don't know if he would've got me or not, they ended up taking that win off me but lucky I still got three home.
"I've drove a couple of trebles before I think, but geez it's been awhile."
The 29-year-old is enjoying an excellent season in the gig, concentrating on driving after deciding to step away from league.
He's got a 16.7 percent winning strike rate - better than his career average of 12 - and amongst his 23 victories this season are a pair of Group 1s aboard star three-year-old Ripp.
His three latest wins at Dubbo were ones he enjoyed as not only did he deliver victory, but bonuses as well.
"All the horses that ended up winning got their bonus, the three-year-old of Wayne Loader's, Far Our Ringo, he got his three-year-old bonus and big Marvella, he's actually our cousin's horse he's left with us for awhile, he got his bonus as well," Hewitt said.
"Then Brett Hutchings' horse in the last, it was a maiden so it's got a bonus too, so it's good for the connections, that's for sure."
While Hewitt was pleased with each of his winning drives, he singled out the run of three-year-old Far Our Ringo as his pick.
The $2.90 favourite worked two and three wide early from his barrier five draw in the Grapevine Cafe Pace (1,720 metres) to eventually settle in the death outside leader Jogalong Blue.
There he stayed and at the top of the home straight it was a battle of three between Jogalong Blue on the inside, Bling The Luck on the outside and Far Our Ringo in between them.
Far Our Ringo, trained by Doug's father Bernie Hewitt, managed to kick and take the win by 1.3m over Bling The Luck ($7).
"Far Out Ringo, I think he was probably the run of the night," Hewitt said.
"He's not know for his strength but he actually dug in real deep, it was a good showing. So it was probably the pick of them.
"Brett's Hutchings' little horse in the last, Blue Chip Money, it was a pretty big run in the end too, it was good to sneak it home even though it didn't run much time, it's always cool to get a horse's first win.
"I probably went a little bit early and Brett said to me after the race said to me 'You had me a bit worried when we you got going a bit early' but it worked out perfect.
"The horses in front of me had done a fair bit of work and I thought they might get a bit tired, so I ended up sneaking around down the back to get to the top and held on the whole way down the straight."
With close to 50 horses in work at the Georges Plains stables of his father Bernie Hewitt plus another five yearlings, Doug Hewitt has his hands full both on and off the track.
But he's pleased to see their team doing well and is happy to hit the road in pursuit of success.
"Everything is kicking along nicely out at the farm, we're working a big team at the moment so it's all about trying to separate the horses so we're not versing each other each week," he said.
"Sometimes that means taking a few out to Dubbo and Parkes and if you can place them in the right races out there, it can make the trip worthwhile
"We've got a nice crop all round, some have gone for a bit of a spell after the [Gold] Crown and we brought in a few of last year's crop. The way the rating system is at the moment the three-year-olds are getting a bit of a leg up and we've got a fair few three-year-olds."
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