Melbourne jockey Craig Newitt has started the new year with a blast winning 2 feature races on the traditional New Year’s Day program at Flemington.
The hoop completed the feature double when he scored an upset win in the $150,000 Listed Bagot Handicap (2800m) with the Peter Gelagotis-prepared Module before his victory aboard the Danny O’Brien-trained Adamantium in the Standish Handicap.
Newitt settled Module off the pace and then powered home from the back to win the Bagot.
And Newitt shown his front running skill on Adamantium to complete the feature double with a stunning speed display in the Standish Handicap. Favourite Catapulted chased gamely but the 5kg weight pull proved too much. The Bart Cummings-trained Goldstone finished 3rd while eleven year old former Hong Kong galloper Good Ba Ba finished 4th.
Newitt narrowly missed out on claiming last season’s Melbourne jockey premiership and will be hoping to go one better this season. Currently he is on 18 wins in the premiership.
By Owens Wong
