Leading reinsman James Herbertson capped off a successful week when he took the driving honours with a winning treble at Melton.
Deputising for Greg Sugars who was in Tasmania with Fighting Command, Herbertson launched his night guiding home the Jess Tubbs trained Tilly Jayne to a narrow win in the Waste Sense Mares Pace.
“She just got floating on me in the last 100 (metres), she probably just let them get a bit too close for everyone’s liking but she’s a quality filly with a big future ahead of her,” Herbertson said.
Later in the night Herbertson partnered talented trotter Harry Stamper to back-to-back wins at Melton when he came from last to outsprint his rivals in the Aldebaran Park Trotters Free For All.
“He’s got his quirks and is a bit of a kid sometimes but at the end of the day he’s got a lovely gait and he’s got the ability to go with it,” he said.
“He’s working through his fitness at the moment and hopefully he has hardened up by the time the better races come around, at the end of the day if it’s not this year it will be next year that he is up and around that class of horse.”
Herbertson completed a double for Tubbs when he steered Dichotomy home in the APG Trot.
Dichotomy ($3.90) made a sustained run three wide without cover for the last 900 metres but was still able to fend off the challenges scoring comfortably by 10 metres from Meadow Valley Star and Sovereign Tiger.
“She was really good, the further we went the better she trotted,” he said.
“She was quite strong through the line and had plenty of trot left and I couldn’t ask much more with pulling out three wide at the bell to be running through the line as well as she was.”
The win brought up Herbertson’s 15th victory in the sulky in the past eight days, taking his tally to 157 wins for the season.
