SHANNON O'Sullivan has enjoyed bigger wins in her still young but rapidly developing career. But her victory aboard The Deal at Echuca on Tuesday night had an added touch of specialness.
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The front-running victory for Charlton trainer Greg Norman gave the Heathcote-based 20-year-old her fifth Team Teal success during the six-week campaign, eclipsing her goal of four wins.
Fittingly, the goal-breaking win came in a race named after the very cause Team Teal is backing, the Support Ovarian Cancer Foundation Pace.
O'Sullivan was understandably rapt to not just have reached her goal, but to have gone past it, with still a few days left in the campaign.
Not to be outdone, O'Sullivan quickly moved to six teal wins by partnering the Jess Tubbs-trained three-year-old Illawong Mustang to a victory at Ballarat on Wednesday night.
She will get a chance to add to her tally with one drive at Kilmore on Thursday night, and a couple at Sunday's Wangaratta meeting, including Showgun Thomas in the $14,500 pacing cup.
"I got three teal winners last season, but I wanted to beat that this time around," O'Sullivan said.
"I'm happy to have beaten my goal, but hopefully with a few more days to go, I can get a few more winners.
"It's good that they have named a few races, like (Tuesday) night, after Team Teal to bring it to everyone's attention and get them to realise this is a major issue affecting a lot of women."
A figure of $400 ($200 each from Harness Racing Victoria and Tabcorp) is donated to the fundraising effort for every win by a female driver on Victorian tracks during the six-week period.
So far there have been 97 winners for a total raised of $38,800.
Champion reinswoman Kate Gath has been the biggest contributor with 17 wins, followed by Kima Freening (14) and Bendigo's Ellen Tormey, who has notched up 10 winners since the campaign launched on February 1.
Hamilton's Jackie Barker has nine wins, with O'Sullivan and Michelle Phillips, who was formerly-based in Bendigo on six, ahead of Kerryn Manning and Denbeigh Wade on five.
O'Sullivan, whose win at Echuca followed one at Sunday's Boort Cup meeting aboard the Amanda Turnbull-trained Elmers Hoofing It, believed the Team Teal campaign always brought out the best in her peers.
"I wouldn't say we drive harder or become more competitive (against each other), but the girls do try a lot harder in February to try and get a win on the board for Team Teal," she said.
"It's a really good thing, and if I don't win the race and there's another girl in the race, I'm hoping she wins.
"I know I'm cheering for the girls when they go out on the track."
O'Sullivan's Echuca win continued a successful association Charlton trainer Greg Norman, which has produced two wins and a placing in seven drives aboard the five-year-old gelding.
"I won on him in a junior race when I was eligible for them; Greg has been really good to me, I think I'm pretty much their junior driver for the stable," she said.
"He's a good horse to drive. I was a bit lucky how the race panned out with the favourite galloping at the start, it really suited our horse.
"We were going to sit in the death if the favourite got to the front, but we were lucky to find it."
The Deal has now won eight races and been placed 25 times in 64 starts for earnings of $53,260.
Other highlights at Echuca included a training win for Shaun McNaulty with Gobsmacked and a return to form for the Kate Hargreaves-Alex Ashwood trained Well Defined, who racked up his seventh career win for owners Brett Hargreaves and Brooke Palfreyman, with an impressive trotting performance.
Meanwhile, O'Sullivan's Ballarat win aboard Illawong Mustang gave her a perfect two wins from two drives aboard the smart three-year-old, who has won five of 13 starts.
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