AN OUTSTANDING 2018-19 racing season for Sutton Grange trainer Brent Stanley has continued to gather momentum.
The 2018 Bendigo Cup-winning trainer notched up a double at Sunday's meeting at the Bendigo Jockey Club, to give him 27 winners for the season.
Stanley, who has ticked past the $5 million mark in prize money in his burgeoning career, is well and truly on track to eclipse last season's tally of 39 winners.
Ten of his winners this season have been in city races, including one each in Adelaide and Sydney, with the other eight achieved in Melbourne.
It was a pair of runners only early in their career, which presented the former Group 1-winning jockey with his latest wins.
Thunderbolt Two, a three-year-old gelding, captured his maiden win over 1000 metres at start number seven, while the three-year-old filly Splendid clocked up his first win in even quicker time at start number two.
Stanley said Thunderbolt Two, a son of Bel Espirit, had returned to his Sutton Grange stables a different horse after being gelded late last year.
"It was good to just see him run through the line ... he used to be a colt and be in front and stop and wait for the fillies," Stanley told Racing.com
"Now that he is racing a little more genuine, we will get him up to 1100m or 1200m.
"He's got a good sprint and he beat a handy little field.
"He's just more of a racehorse (since being gelded)."
Splendid ($3.70) was able to make amends for his sixth on debut at Wangaratta last month, by holding off the late-charging Danny O'Brien-trained three-year-old Provan, to score over the 1400m distance.
Stanley is convinced bigger and longer race wins were ahead for the daughter of Group 1 winner Snitzel and Fiesole.
"She jumped okay today, but kept pressing forward ... they didn't come back either, so it was a solid gallop," he said.
"She is still six months away and wants 2000m, I think she will be a nice mare down the track.
"She's an expensive horse and very well bred, but she's got the maiden out of the way - a win on the board is a great result."
Both Stanley-trained winners were ridden by Brett Prebble, who started the day in brilliant form by winning the first three races on the card.
Sunday's meeting also resulted in a win for Kyneton trainer George Osborne, who scored a fifth career win with Eastern Pegasus in a 1100m benchmark 64 event.
The gelding has shown a distinct liking for the Bendigo track, having won three of his five starts at the White Hills racecourse.
Osborne conceded Eastern Pegasus had been a tricky horse to work out, but was confident he had established an ideal racing pattern for the now five-year-old.
"The rule of thumb with him is if he can get bottled up and see daylight late he's very strong," he said.
"1100m is absolutely the end for him, 1050m is ideal for him .... the last 50m is always a worry for him.
"His best options are when he has got cover, but you can get back on him from a wider gate, as long as you have got cover and don't see daylight until late, that's the best way from him.
"When he is ridden a bit more conventionally and pulls to the outside, he has a bit of think about it and doesn't finish off so well. We worked that out a little while ago."
Eastern Pegasus was ridden by Jamie Kah.
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