Apprentice Chelsea Thompson is finding is hard to choose her favourite horse as her success with Emsley Lodge rolls on.
From five rides for the stable she has won her last three, two of them on Come Along Jeffrey and another on Tori’s Dee last Monday.
Come Along Jeffrey was her first ever winner, leading all the way to score by 2.75 lengths on at Kilmore May 4 and on Friday she rode him again in a similar fashion over the same 1200m course to land the Ule Hoof Oil BM56 Hcp.
Chelsea said it was hard to split Come Along Jeffrey and his grey stablemate Tori’s Dee who she has ridden three times for a win and two close-up finishes.
“I saw him (Come Along Jeffrey) at the jumpouts at Geelong on Wednesday and gave him a good cuddle, and told him not to tell Tori’s Dee, that he was now the new favourite,” Chelsea joked.
Trainer Jamie Edwards said that Come Along Jeffrey likes to dominate his races in front and that it was critical to get the first 200 metres of Friday’s Kilmore race right against two other front runners.
Mindful that she had to lead to give the Come Along Jeffrey his best chance and Chelsea carried out the pre-race instructions perfectly, winning the early speed battle on the $3.30 favourite ahead of Miss Kasei ($7).
“The two drawn inside of us had a fair bit of speed on paper, so we had to do a little bit of work to get across, but once he got across, he got into his rhythm and put them away nicely.”
Come Along Jeffrey burst two lengths clear at the top of the home straight and held that margin to the line to beat the fast finishing If I was You ($8).
The Super One eight-year-old has now won 10 of his 51 starts and $222,550 in prizemoney.
Chelsea is apprenticed to Dane Smith, and her four-kilo allowance has been a great help to both Tori’s Dee and Come Along Jeffrey, who on Friday carried just 60kg after the claim.