By MICHAEL FLOYD
THE Britton family’s recent dominance of Sandown Park continued last Thursday night when the family claimed five of the 12 races on the program.
Robert Britton claimed top billing with a winning treble, including the first two races of the night.
Cairnlea Ethan made amends for a disappointing fifth place at the venue on the previous Sunday with a comprehensive all-the-way win in the night’s opening event.
Britton completed a race-to-race double when Stealthy Mark survived a race long challenge by New South Wales raider Lexia to claim the third win of his career.
Ema’s Princess completed a hat trick for her trainer by leading all of the way to claim race 11. The win was Ema’s Princess’ first at Sandown Park and was especially significant for Britton, who trained her mother One Tree Hill to nine Group race finals.
Robert’s brother Jeff, fresh off a treble of his own the previous Sunday, took out race 3 when promising youngster Cosmic Wise broke a run of outs with an impressive win in 29.63 seconds.
The exciting youngster had endured poor luck in running in his recent starts but had no such trouble this time out, sweeping past early leader Just Relax Ay down the back straight and powering to a comfortable 2.5 length win.
Jeff’s partner Angela Langton joined in the action when Heidi Go Seek claimed race 7.
Fresh off an unlucky fifth in a heat of the South Australian Oaks, the well-travelled daughter of Melbourne Cup finalist Ceejay’s Vixen took full advantage of her inside draw to lead all of the way and defeat the excellent field by 3 lengths. The win maintained her undefeated record over Sandown’s middle distance journey and took her career prize money beyond $65,000.
Along with their five winners, the Britton clan also three minor placings and took home more than $30,000 in prize money. It continues a remarkable 2013 for the trio which has seen them combine for 134 winners at Sandown Park alone.
