Bob Peters claims a hat trick of wins at Ascot

Owner Bob Peters wore a path to the winner’s enclosure at Ascot, having the pleasure of watching the cerise and white Peters Investment colours claim a hat trick of wins in races four, five and six on the Railway Stakes meeting in Perth,

All of the Peters owned winners were saddled by trainer Michael Grantham and ridden by Clint Johnston-Porter.

The three-year-old gelding Westbound kicked off the group’s winning treble, securing a second win from only three career starts.

It was a hard-earned win though with the race going down to the wire after Westbound was taken back from a wide barrier and raced well off the speed in the early part, before Johnson-Porter rallied him into contention and he emerged, swinging six wide, just off the leading line on straightening.

Kelora ($8.50) had a kick strong enough to set a lively target in the final run home, and it took the whole length of the straight for Westbound to reel Kelora in, but the three-year-old achieved that goal in the finals strides to land a thrilling victory.

Westbound was the $3.60 race favourite.

The odds about the race five winner were far more handsome.

Noteworthy, whose last win came over 2100m, was resuming from a five-month break over 1400m, and that combination of ‘time off’ and a distance short of her best had her price all the way out to $15 … but she prevailed in circumstances which mirrored the win of Westbound in many respects.

Noteworthy raced worse than midfield in the first half of the race with ground to make up. Then came the difference to the path followed by Westbound with Noteworthy sticking to the inside … but what transpired then was a virtual duplicate of the earlier win as Noteworthy extended with meaning but only managed to get past the free-running, $4.60 second favourite awesome Boy close to the line.

The owner / trainer/ jockey’s third win … that of Cosmic Crusader would have perhaps been their most satisfying and, at the same time, bitter-sweet win of all.

For some time, Cosmic Crusader had been the ruling favourite for the Group 1 Railways Stakes, but he was beaten into third place in the R J Peters last weekend in a race he had to win to be eligible for that targeted Group 1 assignment.

So, the win here in the Listed Carbine Club Of WA Stakes was something of a consolation prize, but a win nevertheless and it improved the son of Maurice’s record to a very impressive seven wins from fifteen starts.

The win, at a starting price of $1.75 with online bookies, was as emphatic as the 2.59 length winning margin suggests.

Aztec Ruler, who won the race last year, finished second.