A CAREER-BEST season for the young training team of Kate Hargreaves and Alex Ashwood has hit a new high point.
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After producing a stable record 11 winners in September, K&A Racing will end October with a minimum of 15 winners, following a trio of successes this week, highlighted by a double at Mildura on Thursday night
Following the decision to extend the 2019-20 racing season to December 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hargreaves-Ashwood team has moved within sight of 100 Victorian winners.
The stable has produced 84 winners to date, with a little over two months remaining in the season.
Acknowledging the longer than normal length of the season, Hargreaves believed 100 winners would be tough to crack, but not beyond the realms of possibility.
"I'm pretty ambitious with my horses. With 15 winners in the last month, it's not out of reach," she said.
"I'd love to get 100 winners, but it's going to be tough, especially with so many good races coming up.
"Maybe over the last couple of weeks we might have to take truckloads up to Mildura and try and get the hundred.
"We are getting closer, but we'd have to have a pretty good last two months to get there."
Whatever number of winners Hargreaves and Ashwood end up on, they have every right to be proud of what they have achieved in the short time since establishing their base at Shelbourne.
Mildura continues to be a home away from home for the stable, with nine of their 15 wins for the month achieved up north.
"Alex especially has been glad to get back up there and we're happy to go up and there and get a few winners each time," Hargreaves said.
Assessing Thursday night's wins, Hargreaves was pleased to see Beat City back to somewhere near his best in notching up his fifth win in career start number 18.
"He had been going well, but was having no luck and had some really tough runs," she said.
"We just gave him a week off and a little freshen up and brought him back. His work during the week had been really good.
"I sort of expected him to go that way, but it was nice to see him looking like the old Beat City.
"He looks like he's gotten bigger and stronger in these last couple of months - he's a horse who was always gong to get better and better.
"Hopefully, we can run in him in some of the better races later this year. He's not too far off the top echelon."
The stable struck early on the card, with The Knight Star replicating his victory from earlier in the month at Mildura by going back-to-back in the opening race on the program.
Hargreaves said the four-year-old gelding had overcome a rough start to his time at Shelbourne, but looked to have shaken off the effects of an illness with a second and two wins from his last three runs
"He got really sick and nearly died - we actually had him at the Bendigo Equine Hospital for a while," she said.
"Still to this day we don't really know what it was, but he was very sick.
"It was touch and go for one night there, the poor little fellow - he's such a nice horse, but he's had a rough trot."
I sort of expected him to go that way, but it was nice to see him looking like the old Beat City.
- Kate Hargreaves
The Knight Star joined Tay Tay and Bottle Rock as dual winners for the stable during October.
K&A Racing opened their account for the week courtesy of Jilliby Roy at Melton on Wednesday afternoon, with youngster Jordan Leedham doing the honours in the sulky.
The five-year-old gelding had been racing well, but without luck, and was able to break through for an overdue third win at his 19th start.
"He can never seem to get a good draw, so it was very good to see him sit behind the leader and go bang," Hargreaves said.
A month of winners
October 6: Tay Tay (Echuca).
October 7: Aldebaran Sunset, Roquefort Cheese, Bottle Rock (Horsham).
October 9: Lost Four Words, Bella Bronski, Good Cop (Mildura).
October 14: Well Defined (Terang).
October 16: The Knight Star (Mildura)
October 24: Tay Tay, Rising High, Bottle Rock (Mildura).
October 28: Jilliby Roy (Melton).
October 29: The Knight Star, Beat City (Mildura).
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