Kilmore apprentice Ashley Thompson landed his first Melbourne winner when Hussonet mare You I Find finished quickly to take out The Cove Hotel Handicap at Sandown.
Thompson, 20, is apprenticed to his mother Jody Thompson who winning trainer Lee Hope recalled had been apprenticed to him.
Thompson said he’d been riding in races for just over 2-1/2 years and You I Find was his 80th winner, meaning he can no longer claim in the country.
He said his two metropolitan winners before Wednesday were in Adelaide.
Thompson has been riding quite a lot for trainer Leon Corstens and said he had ridden Golden Slipper runner Mosheen in trackwork.
“I used to help my mother at the stables over the Christmas holidays and that’s how I got the (racing) bug,” he said.
Hope said Thompson had a future in the saddle.
“He’s willing to learn and he’s improved his style,” the Kilmore trainer said.
“He rode it well and he looked good on it too.”
A drifter in the betting from $6 to $9, You I Find swept home late in the 2100m rating 0-89 mares event to score by a length from race leader Gallant Lady ($3.20 fav) with Bronislava ($5.50) a long head away third.
Hope, who trains with his son Shannon Hope who runs the partnership’s Seymour stables, completed a double in the following race when Gold Sand ($3.80) won the Race-Tech Hcp (1400m) with senior rider Reece Wheeler in the saddle.
Jockey Nick Hall said promising four-year-old Tanby deserved his chance in a Saturday race after an impressive win in the Betfair Hcp (2100m).
The Galileo four-year-old, raced by the Williams family and trained by Robert Hickmott, was sent out $1.90 favourite and when Hall let him go showed good acceleration to quickly pick up the leaders.
The gelding recorded his first city win, scoring by two lengths from Rusticated ($8.50) with Fordee ($16) a long neck away third.
“I really like the horse. He runs through the lines so you’d expect him to get further too,” Hall said.
Tanby has won four of his seven starts and hasn’t finished out of a place.
AAP TURF
