Ron Quinton was thankful he could savour training another feature-race quinella after stable stars Dixie Blossoms and Daysee Doom fought out the Angst Stakes.
Quinton fronted a Racing NSW stewards inquiry during the week over cobalt irregularities but escaped penalty.
His relief was obvious as Dixie Blossoms reversed the result from the Golden Pendant last month to claim Saturday’s Group Three race.
Although found guilty of presenting two horses to race with elevated levels of cobalt, stewards did not impose a penalty because testing revealed Quinton’s feed was incorrectly labelled.
“It’s a great weight of my shoulders,” he said.
“I was bloody worried. Myself and the staff had nothing wrong, I had to stick on that.”
The Angst Stakes result topped off Quinton’s week as Dixie Blossoms, the $2.70 favourite, surged clear of her stablemate at the 100m and won by three-quarters of a length.
“She didn’t cruise up like I thought she might, anyway she got the job done,” Quinton said.
“When you get to Daysee you’ve got to beat her because she fights on.”
Daysee Doom ($4.80) finished three-quarters of a length clear of third placegetter Zenalicious ($17).
“They’re two wonderful mares for us. It’s a bloody shame we’ve got to keep running against each other,” Quinton said.
However, Quinton plans another head-to-head clash in the Group One Myer Classic (1600m) at Flemington on November 4.
Dixie Blossoms was fourth in the race last year, three weeks after winning the Angst Stakes.
But with a longer break between the races this year Quinton said he had something to think about.
“We’ll work a plan out, we’ll sort something out,” he said.
