There may have only a field of six runners in the Westspeed Nursey Handicap (1000m) but it produce a spirited duel between the two fancied runners Rebel King and Sheidel.
There was also a keen battle in the betting ring with Rebel King’s price commencing at $1.40 before drifting to $2 as money came for Sheidel ($3.60 to $2.80).
Ben Kennedy, on the Darren McAuliffe trained Rebel King, kept Sheidel (Pat Carbery) away from the fence by racing near her flanks in second place.
On the corner Kennedy pushed his favourite galloper, along the rails to lead but the filly refused to surrender and a real slugfest ensued down the straight.
Responding to Kennedy’s urgings Rebel King, despite carrying 6kg more weight than the unbeaten Sheidel, ( going for a hat trick), fought on to the narrowest short half head victory.
Castle Retreat was third and Prickly Feet (fifth) performed well after being left by five and half lengths at the start.
With four straight victories McAuliffe said his classy two year old was now headed to the paddock after having done everything asked of him in his second faultless campaign.
Ben Kennedy made it an early double when Tower of Lonhro, trained by Adam Durrant, finished strongly, scoring from Need A Lift and Danablue, in the third race over (1600m).
Kennedy earned his rave reviews from both Darren McAuliffe and Jason Miller, stable foreman for Adam Durrant.
PARNHAM BATTLE: Trainer Neville Parnham is rightly proud of his three jockey sons but he would have been firmly on the side of Brad against Chris in the Westspeed 3YO Handicap (1300m).
The middle son was on the stable representative, Crown Lawyer, while the younger son was on Timebomb, trained by Ross and Clint Price.
The favourite Sujet was third after being trapped three wide throughout.
The trainer said he thought his horse “would have been a good thing” without Sujet in the race. “He ran a good third behind Sujet last start and worked well on Tuesday. Today, Brad sat him in a nice spot early (second) and Sujet had a tough run.”
Parnham said he was a nice horse to train and was happy with the way he fought off the challenge from Timebomb (carrying 4kg less weight) to win narrowly.