Banker wins again

[Wandering Eyes]

KELLY Schweida will give in-form stayer London Banker a short reprieve after he backed up to win the Benchmark 90 Handicap (2200m) at Doomben on Saturday.

The son of Tavistock broke through for his first Australian win a week prior at Eagle Farm and Schweida said he made the decision to back-up because he felt there weren’t any other suitable races for the gelding until the end of the month.

With that in mind, Schweida said he would send London Banker out for a week to give him time on a water walker and freshen up.

London Banker is raced by Ron and Judy Wanless, who enjoyed Group 1 success with horses like Amalfi and Lights Of Heaven.

After the defeat of odds-on prop Hamlet Von Snitzel in the opening event, favourite backers were quickly back in the groove at Doomben, with London Banker ($2.05) followed by Tramonto ($2.15) in the third event and Dzsenifer ($3.40) in Race 4.

Tramonto lived up to some strong winter carnival formlines to justify his short priced tag in the Class 3 Plate.

Trainer Jonny Field threw Tramonto in the deep end during the carnival, where he was runner-up in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas and third at Listed level at Eagle Farm.

So he was beautifully placed under the Plate conditions and after being allowed to find his feet by jockey Jag Guthmann-Chester, used his extravagant action to mow down the leaders in the final 200m.

Field only took out his Australian trainers license a few months ago, after having a diversified background in racing.

He has previously trained and educated jockeys in New Zealand, where he trained in his own right for a while and also ran training programs for unemployed and school leavers to get more people involved in racing.

After moving to Australia he spent a period of time working for Godolphin in Sydney before landing on the Gold Coast. 

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