The seesawing Melbourne jockeys’ premiership race continues at Ballarat on Wednesday, minus the leader Craig Williams.
A careless riding suspension means Williams will miss the Ballarat metropolitan meeting and Saturday’s Sir John Monash Stakes day card at Caulfield.
It gives Dwayne Dunn and Damien Oliver the chance to peg back the slender deficit.
Williams was outed for careless riding aboard Jessy Belle, winner of the final race at Flemington on Saturday.
Jessy Belle was Williams’ third win of the day and took him to a one-win lead over Dunn with Oliver another win behind.
Oliver won aboard Amovatio at Flemington in his first Melbourne meeting for 2-1/2 weeks, while Dunn was winless on Saturday.
Dunn has seven rides at Ballarat while Oliver has six.
Wednesday’s meeting is one of nine metropolitan meetings left in the final month of the 2014/15 racing season.
The Hawkes Racing-trained Longeron forms part of Dunn’s book of rides in Wednesday’s heat of the Winter Championship Series.
The Sydney premiership is also close with Hugh Bowman and Blake Shinn out to take advantage of James McDonald’s absence.
McDonald is riding in England but will return in the middle of next month and with neither Bowman nor Shinn riding a winner on Saturday, he maintains the lead on 88-1/2.
Bowman is on 83 with Shinn 1-1/2 behind.
Both Shinn and Bowman have full books of rides at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
Both Jim Byrne in Brisbane and Clare Lindop in Adelaide have comfortable leads in their respective premierships while while in Perth apprentice Lucy Warwick on 55-1/2 still has a mathematical chance to catch William Pike whose season ended in May when he underwent shoulder surgery.
There are nine meetings left for Warwick, who had a double on Saturday, to better Pike’s 74.
