They say that luck is a fortune in racing but from my experience at least it seems that there is abundantly more bad luck than good.
Grafton based trainer Vanessa McLennan has certainly had her share of both in recent weeks.
The late cancellation of the Casino meeting a couple of weeks back had a big effect on the yard with almost her entire racing population engaged to start on the day so many a plan was out the window.
Then a couple of days later a stable accident saw Vanessa with a broken clavicle that required surgery. Also as a work riding trainer it meant the training programme was now also out the window. Many would have pulled stumps for the duration of the recovery but not Vanessa.
Team McLennan pushed on to the Tuncurry meeting with a number of the runners that had missed out at the cancelled Casino meeting.
Flash Prince was having his first start for over three months in the BM 50 1600m. A trick to be ready at the best of times but even trickier when you are doing it on a Heavy track.
Ridden by Jon Grisedale Flash Prince sat outside the leader throughout before Jon went for home on the point of the turn and it was pretty much race over from that point of the race with Flash Prince going on to score with total authority.
The Grafton meeting on Saturday again saw team McLennan well represented and with another winner also on the menu.
Master Of Rewards with Jon Grisedale again the rider of choice made it the second winner the stable in eight days when he scored in the BM 50 1190m.
Allowed to settle third the fence Master Of Rewards was moved into clear air on the point of the turn and before the 200m dashed away with was eventually a winning break racing away to score by over two lengths.
