SINCE the advent of regional harness racing earlier this month, only three Central Victorian region horses have doubled up as winners.
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One of them belongs to Anthony Crossland.
The Eppalock-based trainer-driver is savouring back-to-back wins with his promising three-year-old Lola Devereaux.
The Bacardi Lindy filly on Monday came from sixth with a lap to travel to challenge Lotta Fuss (Matthew Gath) at the 200m, before sprinting clear in the straight to register an impressive 10.4m victory at Lord's Raceway.
That win followed a similarly convincing victory at Bendigo earlier in the month to give her two on the trot.
Bred by the Crossland family, Anthony said that alone made the win a little more special than most.
"It always means a little bit more when you breed them and that's the first one we have bred," he said.
"It's a lot of the family who are involved and a couple of new investors.
"She has been promising to deliver for so long, but just making mistakes at the wrong times. She's managed to get her confidence up and is doing well.
"It took us a while to realise she has a few structural issues and we managed to get hold of a good horse chiropractor. Every time he's seen her leading into a race, she's just about done things all right.
"It's just a matter of sometimes it seems to be easier finding an FBI agent than a chiropractor."
Lola Devereaux became the second horse to notch up two wins at Lord's Raceway under the new racing model, behind the Glenn Douglas-trained Elegant Jewel (April 3 and 15) and narrowly ahead of the Shaun McNaulty-trained pacer Gobsmacked, who got his second later on the program.
Also on two wins for the month is the Grant Innes-trained Vincent Kai, albeit one was achieved at Shepparton before the programming change.
Crossland has plenty of confidence Lola Devereaux can continue to mature and progress and notch up some bigger race wins.
"She's a pretty tidy filly, if you look at her record she has come top five in two Group 1s already," he said.
"She will hopefully follow that path as she gets older.
"As the chiropractor is telling us, her structural issues are more an immaturity thing with her body.
"Once she develops she should be right."
Crossland, who has two wins on Lola Devereaux and another aboard the Gary Donaldson-trained Rocks Arnt Pets this month, has thrown his full support around the regional racing model.
"Everyone I speak to is very positive about it, it's giving everyone an opportunity," he said.
"We are all getting a chance to let everyone know we can win races.
"But most importantly, everyone is getting an earn.
"Everyone around the races is very positive, everyone is getting around each other and helping out."
Crossland is booked to drive the Keith Pratt-trained Playing The Ace on Thursday night at Bendigo.
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