Rising star reinsman Tom Ison had a day to remember at his hometown harness racing track of Tamworth yesterday with a haul of five winners.
Four of the winners were for his boss Roy Roots Jnr with the remaining one for local trainer Anthony Missen.
Ison has been in career-best form in recent weeks, posting a quartet at Newcastle-the third time he had achieved the feat. He has previously landed four winners on two occasions at Tamworth.
But he went one better at Tamworth, with a fabulous five.
"It certainly was a big day-I'm pretty excited," he said late yesterday while loading up the horses for home.
The first winner for Missen was a blowout for punters starting at 30/1. Ison led all the way with Mickey Ramone (Armbro Operative-Key Attraction (Troublemaker).
To watch the video replay click here.
The next four were all in the market, but Ison showed he's a "class act" to get them over the line.
The Ison/Roots combination was successful with Black Eight (Rocknroll Hanover-Bed Socks (Knight Rainbow); Watching Your Dream (He's Watching-MajorDreams (Major In Art); Glengarry Rose (Real Desire-Glengarry Lass (Live Or Die) and Bohannan (Santana Blue Chip-Ariana Angel (Elsu).
To watch the video replay of Black Eight click here
To watch the video replay of Watching Your Dreams click here
To watch the video replay of Glengarry Rose click here
To watch the video replay of Bohannan click here
"It was unbelievable. I really wanted that last one to make it five and we just got there by a short half head, which makes it even more special," Ison said.
"The race was a nice one to win. The owner of the horse rang during the week and asked about our chances. We thought he would go okay because he's a big strong horse," he said.
"He was keen early so I decided to let him zip. I thought with 400 metres to go we may have been gone. But he just kept powering on."
Ison has now driven over 50 winners for the season–with an enviable strike rate of finishing top three at least half the time. His tally last season was 39 wins and 62 placings.
"It was nice to get the five at my old track. But it didn't really matter where it was, I just wanted to get them. My next ambition is to land a treble at Menangle. That would be sweet because I've had a double there."
But there were no big festivities planned for the young man in a hurry.
"My celebration on landing five winners will be McDonalds on the way home," he laughed.
Another young gun in Jack Callaghan, who just recently was the toast of Newcastle with a bag of five winners, was again prominent at Tamworth with a winning double.
Terry Gange
NewsAlert PR Mildura
P 0498 490 672
W www.newsalertpr.com.au