STRATHFIELDSAYE trainer/driver Glenn Douglas gave himself an early birthday present on Saturday night, scoring a winning double.
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Douglas, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, prepared Johnny Tee to win the WIN TV Network Pace Final and one race later he produced a great drive to win on stablemate Shez A Spy in the Bendigo Advertiser Pace.
The double continued Douglas' great run of producing winners' on his hometown Cup night.
"We've had a fair bit of luck on Cup night the past few years which is nice,'' Douglas said.
Johnny Tee's victory was thanks largely to a great drive from youngster Josh Duggan.
Johnny Tee hadn't won a race since January 7, 2013, and it took all of Duggan's skill to get the seven-year-old home.
From three back on the pegs, Duggan weaved his way into clear running in the home straight and Johnny Tee ($19.50) burst to the front right on the finish line from Cool Machrista ($5.10).
"You have to drive the horse like that to give him any chance of winning and Josh did a great job tonight,'' Douglas said.
Shez A Spy's win was the opposite to Johnny Tee.
Douglas went hard out of the gates and Shez A Spy crossed to the front.
From there Douglas controlled the race to his liking.
With odds-on favourite Seven And A Half sitting on his outside, Douglas and Shez A Spy got away with a first half of the last mile of 62.8.
Douglas then let Shez A Spy($6.30) loose at the 600m mark and the mare held off Seven And a Half ($1.50 fav) by two metres.
It was a further 24m back to third placegetter Miss Tanami ($82).
"She's got a lot to learn, but she's got a bit of a future,'' Douglas said of Shez A Spy.
"Everybody thought the favourite would win, but I was confident she'd be hard to run down if we could get a cheap run early on."
Later in the night, Glenn's brother Daryl scored a winning double of his own.
Daryl Douglas rode Motu Young Jacob to an all-the-way win in the Monte, before backing up a race later with victory in the All Seasons Hotel Pace with Thisiswhoiam.
Meanwhile, Maiden Gully trainer David Van Ryn gave the locals something to cheer about early on when Paris Pepperell was an easy winner of the first event.
The four-year-old mare led from start to finish to defeat the Ross Graham-trained Bella Cheval by more than eight metres.
It was her fourth career win and she hasn't finished further back than fourth in her past 18 starts.