Gibbons’ Classic Floodfawn breakthrough

[Wandering Eyes]

Daniel and Rebecca Gibbons broke their frustrating feature race curse in style at Traralgon on Friday night, training the quinella in the $15,750 Floodfawn Classic (500m).

Even-money favourite McKeon Bale defeated kennelmate Gracie Bale in 27.99sec to claim the $10,000 winner’s purse.

It was McKeon Bale’s ninth win from 20 starts, with the daughter of Feral Franky having previously finished third in the G3 Ladies Bracelet at Wentworth Park, while runner-up Gracie Bale had been placed in both the G2 Laurels and G3 Provincial Plate.

WATCH: Favourite MCKEON BALE (3) finished strongly to win the Floodfawn Classic (500m) at Traralgon on Friday night, defeating GRACIE BALE (7) to give trainers Daniel and Rebecca Gibbons the quinella.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Daniel Gibbons.

“We were counting, and we’ve been in 20 Group races and still haven’t won one. This wasn’t a Group race, but it was exciting to finally win a good race.

“Hopefully, McKeon Bale can go on to better things now and Gracie Bale is just coming back to her best, because she’s been on season.”

‘Team Gibbons’ also had the favourite in the $15,250 Glenview Cup final (395m) in Freya Bale ($3.20).

The young Avalon-based husband-and-wife team went within a neck of claiming a feature race double with Graeme Jose’s fastest heat winner Maxed Out ($7.70) arriving in the last stride to score in 22.15sec.

“I was pretty confident we could win both finals, but I thought Freya Bale was a better chance than McKeon Bale, so when Freya Bale got beaten, I thought we were going to miss out again!” Gibbons quipped.

Friday night’s Traralgon meeting also featured the $5,000 to-the-winner Latrobe Valley Cup (395m), which went to Bean’s Multi, trained by Donna Dean, in 22.42sec.

WATCH: Fastest qualifier MAXED OUT (2) ran down favourite FREYA BALE (1) in the last stride to claim a thrilling victory in the Glenview Cup final (395m) at Traralgon on Friday night.

MAXED OUT claimed a thrilling victory in Traralgon’s Glenview Cup final on Friday night. 

Images courtesy TAMMY LEE PHOTOGRAPHY

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