ALEX Ashwood admits a winless meeting at Lord's Raceway last Thursday did not sit well with him.
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So, he privately vowed to make amends the next time around.
That he did on Monday, and in impressive fashion, with the Bendigo reinsman steering home no fewer than four winners on his home track.
It's the second time in seven meetings under the new regional racing format that Ashwood has driven exactly half the card.
"The meeting before (April 23), I thought I had a really good book of drives and I thought I could get a couple of winners and I walked away with nothing," he said.
"It was probably a shock to the system to be honest."
His previous haul of four winners was achieved on April 13 and included two of the same horses that won on Monday, the Trevor Patching-trained Busters Grin and Belltopperboy for Kent Harpley.
Ashwood made known his intentions early by scoring aboard the Patching-trained Pippa One Two, a seven-year-old mare, who was having just her second start in nearly four years.
"Trevor's done a great job to have her in good order and fit," he said.
"She did a great job to come third (behind the stablemate Busters Grin) after a four-layoff, and the way she did it was impressive.
"Pippa One Two had a bowed tendon and obviously took a bit of time to get over it, but she's come back pretty impressively to do what she did last night."
Pleasingly for the Kate Hargreaves/Alex Ashwood stable, the second of four wins for the night was delivered by one of their own pacers, Wicked Azz.
A hard-fought, but solid victory in a tactical run affair gave the improving filly back-to-back wins.
Ashwood conceded finding suitable races for Wicked Azz within the region would become more difficult, with a trio of wins now under her belt from 20 career starts.
"She's in great form at the moment and was probably the fittest horse in the race, which probably got her over the line," Ashwood said.
"She's a handy filly without being a star.
"After winning a couple of races in the region, it's probably going to be a bit hard to place her than normal."
Ashwood hailed the regional racing model for providing a good chance for drivers and trainers to enjoy a mental and physical break.
"You are not travelling as much, you have more time to yourself and you can do more things around the farm," he said.
"The sooner we get back to normal the better it will obviously be, but at the moment it's more of a mental and physical break, which we all need at some point.
"It's a pretty hectic sport, when you are racing seven days a week."
Four wins on Monday lifted Ashwood's tally since the introduction of regional racing to 12 winners.
He leads Ellen Tormey by two, with Rod Lakey third on nine after advancing his total to nine with a win aboard the Ray Cross-trained Countess Chiron.
Glenn Douglas is fourth on four.
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