Apprentices steal the spotlight at Doomben

Wednesday 23 July 2014, 11:50am

The two jockeys vying for Brisbane premiership honours were upstaged at Doomben on Wednesday.

Michael Cahill and Tim Bell ended the meeting locked together on 56 wins after Bell's victory on Not A Singlemoment.

They have two meetings to sort out who will be Brisbane's No. 1 hoop for 2013-14.

It was left to apprentices to dominate the meeting as Janette Johnson rode a double, Tegan Harrison celebrated a return from suspension with a win and Cassandra Schmidt got a career boost with her victory.

Johnson's double on Buon Auspicio and Simply Smart gave her four winners for the week after she won the apprentices' race at Hawkesbury on Sunday and the Ballina Bracelet on Tuesday.

Harrison, who will come out of her apprenticeship in a fortnight, rode Sequalex to win for trainer Tony Gollan's wife Jane and his sisters Zoe Daly and Tanya Harris.

Schmidt celebrated the return of her Saturday city-riding licence after winning on her father's horse Born to Run Easy.

Schmidt has ridden about 160 winners and 56 of those have been this season.

Her father Dwayne Schmidt said he was puzzled by the decision earlier this year to restrict Cassandra to provincial and mid-week racing.

"She has ridden a lot of winners and a lot of those have been for the top trainers. Anyway, she can come to town in the new season and show us what she can do," he said.

Bridget Grylls, the daughter of top Kiwi jockey Gary Grylls, won the last race on Watling.

Grylls is having a stint with trainer Barry Lockwood at Eagle Farm and earned the ride on Watling for holidaying trainer Rob Heathcote by riding plenty of trackwork.

Kelly Purdy had a big smile when Simply Smart won the Keno Hit Jackpot Handicap (1200m).

"If ever a horse deserved a win it was him after three seconds at his last three runs," said Purdy, who has cut her team from 19 to six in the past week.

"I figure there isn't much percentage in chasing around with maidens until the prize money gets better."

Simply Smart is now likely to return to Saturday racing in a fortnight.

– AAP

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