COFFS Harbour trainer Sally Taylor continued a tremendous recent run of form for the stable when she produced Zanardee's Lane to win the last race at the Taree races on Sunday.
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Zanardee's Lane, beautifully ridden by apprentice jockey Mitch Stapleford, grabbed the lead a stride or two before the post to beat Run Rory Run by 0.22 of a length in the Sunrise Cundletown Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1262 metres.
Stapleford allowed the five-year-old gelding to settle down one off the fence and immediately behind the leading line of three horses and when the field packed up rounding the home turn he eased out into the clear.
The leader in the run, Bob's Last One, trained by Glen Milligan, compounded once the heat was applied in the straight and noted wet-tracker Run Rory Run raced to the front and was going to be hard to run down on the Heavy 10 surface.
But Zanardee's Lane managed to do that just in time and Stapleford's two-kilogram claim would've been a factor in that.
Zanardee's Lane started as an easing $11 chance after a disappointing ninth in a Class 2 event over 1430 metres at Grafton at his previous start, but appeared to appreciate the cut in distance.
Taylor has now trained five winners from her last nine starters, all at country tracks, in a run that began at Casino on April 13 and has included a double at Armidale on April 15, another single at Armidale on April 25 and now the Taree winner.
Before that she had gone 22 straight starters without a winner since Tread Softly won for her at Eagle Farm in Brisbane on January 3.
Improvise
Taylor said heavy rain in recent months had forced her to improvise to get her horses fit to race and now that they were fit they were firing.
"We haven't had grass gallops here consistently for about two months, so it's been very difficult to get horses fit," she said.
"I take them to the beach and gallop them there and I've also been doing a bit of jumping with them and working up hills just to get them fit and it seems to be working.
"I have a friend who owns a property just 10 minutes out of Coffs and I work them up the hills there.
"I've always worked them down at the beach, but we've basically had to do all of our fast work there recently.
"It's been difficult, but the rain has been unbelievable here. It's like a swamp. It's not the club's fault, it's mother nature.
"You have to have the right horses in work to get the winners as well and you obviously need good rides.
"Mitch rode Zanardee's Lane exactly to instructions. I wanted to have him one out and one back and wait until he straightened before pushing the button and he did all of that perfectly.
"I've got a great staff as well and you must have that if you're going to get results."
