Two horses recorded their maiden victory for Gunnedah-based horse owner and trainer Sally Torrens within the past week.
The first occasion was when Real Housewives was first past the finish line in race one at the Armidale Jockey Club last Friday, and the second occasion was when Chasing Quivers won race three at Moree on Tuesday.
With eight races taking place at the Armidale track rated a Soft 5, the opening race was 1400m and contained a field of eight.
Real Housewives was the second favourite while another Torrens-trained mare, Pinero, placed seventh after being the sixth favourite.
Although it took nearly two years for Real Housewives to achieve its first win, the horse’s owner and trainer said “she’s a model of consistency” after achieving numerous second and third placings.
“It’s just a matter of everything lining up,” Torrens said.
“She was always going to win one.”
Torrens said the track was “spot on” on a beautiful day, while it was a case of “good barriers win races” with Real Housewives in barrier two.
Real Housewives was in fifth place at one stage and third for a while, before coming up the inside and beating the runner-up by nearly three lengths.
Torrens said the jockey, Mikayla Weir, “rode her a treat” and didn’t need any instructions considering Weir was an experienced jockey and had ridden Real Housewives a number of times before.
Torrens also had another runner at Armidale last Friday, with equal-eighth favourite Magic Sorcerer placing third in the final race which had a field of 12.
Magic Sorcerer led for a while before finishing just 0.49 of a length behind the victor which had the longest odds.
Four days later, Torrens had four runners at the Moree track rated a Good 4.
Of those runners, Parissident placed second in race one, and then Bravalatante came third in race two before Chasing Quivers grabbed the glory in the next race.
In race six, the Torrens-trained Gold Smiles finished fifth.
After coming first in a trial nearly two years ago, Chasing Quivers came within a whisker of a breakthrough win last June when the mare finished an agonising 0.02 of a length behind the victor in a race at Narrandera.
As was the case with Real Housewives, Chasing Quivers had been very consistent although the latter had often drawn a wide barrier.
Chasing Quivers recorded numerous third placings – including two in four days in January – before finishing runner-up at Tamworth just 15 days before the race at Moree.
Being in barrier one at Moree made a huge difference to the outcome for the mare.
Chasing Quivers was the third favourite in a field of eight, while it was the first time Jacob Stiff had ridden the mare.
