Steven Parnham got the monkey off his back by winning with Fremond in the that youngster’s first race start. Unusually it was the quality jockey’s first metropolitan win in the 2014/15 season and he also had only one previous provincial win going into the race. In addition a couple of race falls have not exactly boosted his confidence either.
Fremond was slow away, missing the 1000m sprint start by perhaps a couple of lengths and Parnham confessed to a lack of confidence
at his prospects at that stage. Although second last on the turn Parnham felt more confident although he still needed clear running. By the 200m mark Parnham had him clear despite Natasha Faithfull’s effort to keep him in on her mount Tworeen. Last on the turn Tworeen ran a good second while the youngest Parnham jockey,Chris, was third on Glitterbell.
Not to be outdone by his trainer father, Neville, and older brother, Brad Parnham made it a great start for Racing’s First Family with a narrow win on Fathnoxious in the second race (1600m). The victory completed a hat trick of wins for the four year old daughter of Fath from only seven race starts. Parnham jumped the mare into second place early behind pacemaker, Oakhurst Flyer (Lucy Warwick), before sliding back to fourth in the one out lane. In the run to the line Oakhurst Flyer continued to fight hard before Fathnoxious prevailed by a short head. Blue Palace was a length back in third. Parnham said he was happy with his position and didn’t want to be the one to put the early pressure on Oakhurst Flyer who had a soft run in front.
Trainer Shane Quilty said he would have preferred more pressure on the leader. “It made me panic,” he said to his jockey. “That’s good for you,” Parnham quipped. Quilty said he intended to step his promising mare up to 1800m next week at Ascot. “I think ultimately she will appreciate more ground, up to 2100m,” he said.
It was almost a case of the Parnhams striking again in the third race. In a driving five horse finish William Pike landed the major prize for trainer Justin Warwick with a superb rails run on The Alleged. This was some compensation for that trainer narrowly losing the previous race. Vital Importance (Chris Parnham), finishing on out wide, just failed by the proverbial lip with Bedamijo (Alan Kennedy) a breath away in third place.