Wagga trainer Wayne Carroll is through to his first Country Championships Final courtesy of his tough mare, Lady Mironton.
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Carroll took a three-pronged attack into Saturday's $150,000 SDRA Qualifier at Albury and it was Lady Mironton who led the charge for the stable, finishing second to Bennelong Dancer.
Lady Mironton was held up at various stages early in the home straight but sprinted strongly once clear and finished well clear of third.
Carroll was delighted with Lady Mironton's performance.
"Absolutely. I haven't had a chance to talk to Simon (Miller) yet but he said he got caught fairly badly in there for a fair while apparently," Carroll said.
"Obviously being her second up run, there is a fair bit of improvement there."
Carroll is excited by the prospect of plotting a path to the $500,000 Country Championships Final at Randwick on April 6.
"We know we're going to meet better opposition again but at the same time,we're going to get better and we can sort of re-plan again. Go back and start again," he said.
Lady Mironton's stablemates, Fashion Tip and Rock 'N' Roller, ran eighth and ninth. Fashion Tip led the field and battled on gallantly, while Rock 'N' Roller got a long way back and was working home solidly when he got caught up in the wash up of the fall.
The Chris Heywood-trained Landmine fell at the 100m mark when running into trouble. Both the horse and apprentice jockey Chris Williams appeared to escape serious injury.
Forever Newyork loomed up and ran third. Wagga trainer Gary Colvin said a trip to Muswellbrook for the Championships Wildcard was extremely unlikely.
Son Of Spartacus ran the race of his career to finish fourth for Wagga trainer Maree Hopkins and apprentice jockey Belinda Wright.
Wagga trainer Scott Spackman's pair, Takookacod and O' So Hazy, finished seventh and 10th respectively.
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