He had to travel to regional Victoria for it, but Luke Cartwright got his first taste of Saturday metropolitan success with a fortuitous double at Bendigo’s feature Golden Mile Raceday.
The Mornington apprentice notched a milestone win when he partnered Heavenly Eagle to a blowout in the third race of the day before following up two races later aboard Manolo Bling.
The Golden Mile Raceday events carried metropolitan status as the weekend’s feature meeting in Victoria and Cartwright, who has experienced some near-misses in Melbourne in recent weeks, was thrilled to double up aboard horses he was not initially engaged to ride.
He picked up the ride on Heavenly Eagle – the fourth emergency – after his ride Otago was scratched, while he was free to replace Tom Prebble aboard Manolo Bling after losing the ride on Reserve Bank on race morning.
“Savoire Faire in the Yarra Valley Cup nearly got it done and so did Red Phantom last Saturday but today, the first one (Heavenly Eagle), I knew he went well but it was a bit of surprise,” he said.
“I knew this one (Manolo Bling) was definitely my best ride and with 51 (kilos), if I could skip away I knew she’d be hard to beat.
“I’m rapt, I’ve gone from not riding a city winner to riding two on Golden Mile Day.”
Cartwright only returned to race riding last month after more than three months out due to neck and spine injuries in a fall in November last year.
The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Manolo Bling made it three wins from eight starts with her all-the-way win as $2.90 favourite.
Heavenly Eagle, who is prepared by Stephen Brown, landed some good bets when he wore down Waimarie to score after firming from $51 into $26 in official markets with betting sites.
