ALEX Ashwood reaffirmed his position as the central Victorian region's leading driver by steering home four winners at Tuesday night's meeting at Lord's Raceway.
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The 25-year-old drove exactly half the card, boosting his tally after three nights of racing under the new region-based' model in Bendigo to eight winners.
Ashwood bookended the meeting with victories aboard the Trevor Patching-trained Busters Grin and Above Average for in-form Bendigo trainer Justin Brewin.
In between, he notched up wins for Kent Harpley on Belltopperboy and for his own team on the Kate Hargreaves-trained Well Defined.
Ashwood has a chance to add to his tally with four drives at Wednesday night's meeting at Bendigo.
His four-win haul was highlighted by a return to form by Well Defined, who advanced his record to eight wins and four placings from 31 starts, since his arrival in Australia in 2018.
"He's been mixing his form of late, but when he's on-song he's more than handy enough, and he showed that (Tuesday) night," Ashwood said.
"He worked both ends of the race, he flew the gate and then took a sit, but still finished off well."
Ashwood's brilliant front-running drive helped end a nearly four-year win drought for Busters Grin.
The seven-year-old gelding had not won a race since May 2016, but showed signs a breakthrough was near with a pair of seconds from his previous three starts at Bendigo and Ouyen.
"The Patchings really deserved it, they look after their horses tremendously and they always look good," Ashwood said.
While the wait between wins was nowhere near as long for Harpley, a second career victory for Belltopperboy was still just a shade over 12 months in the making.
The four-year-old gelding broke his maiden at only his third run in March last year, but was winless at his next eight starts.
Ashwood is convinced Belltopperboy can quickly add his third win.
"He's always shown a lot of ability and is finally working out how to be a nice trotter," he said.
"I'm sure he's got a nice future ahead of him."
He considers Above Average unlucky not to have broken through at his previous start and commended Brewin on an outstanding training performance in turning the four-year-old gelding around.
Despite seeing his weekly number of drives diminish from an average of 15 to about 10 under the new regional model, Ashwood is continuing to maintain his impressive strike-rate.
He views increased opportunities at Bendigo as the silver lining to not being able to travel to places like Mildura, where he would normally have close to a full book of drives.
"I don't mind it, you don't have to travel as far. I'm probably driving the same amount of winners as I was before, that's a positive," he said.
"The negative is I can't get to Mildura to drive for the people I normally drive for, that's a downer
"But in saying that I am getting more opportunities in Bendigo."
Ashwood praised Harness Racing Victoria for its efforts in continuing to promote the sport under obvious trying circumstances.
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