Name The Day has provided his connections with a long-overdue return to winning form at Flemington.
His victory in the KA Morrison Handicap on Saturday was the lightly-raced six-year-old’s first since October 2013.
But injury has restricted Name The Day to just nine starts since that Geelong victory.
Providing the combination of jockey Craig Williams and trainer Ciaron Maher with a double in the first three races, $2.30 favourite Name The Day scored by 1-1/4 lengths from Diamond Duke ($31), with Straight Jacket ($12) a length away at third.
Maher’s racing manager, Ben Connolly, said Name The Day was injured during training 18 months ago, which set the gelding back eight months.
“Since then he’s been trained at the beach down at Warrnambool and the results are seen here today,” Connolly said.
“We’re thrilled for the connections. They’ve been excessively patient and to get a win like that at a track like this, it’s a big thrill.”
Connolly praised the ride of Williams, who said the gelding needed persuasion to end his winless run.
“He had a really good think,” he said.
“It was his first time up in trip and the wind was very strong and I had to convince him.
“He ended winning with complete authority and more importantly showed he can run out 2000 metres really strongly.”
