Three Group 2 Breeders Challenge Blue wins on the same evening at the same meeting –it’s little wonder Georges Plains trainer-driver Bernie Hewitt has been dubbed the ‘King of the Blues’.
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A series for horses who are 100 per cent bred in New South Wales, the finals at Menangle Park were dominated by members of Hewitt’s team
He won the two-year-old fillies final with Write About Lexy ($8.30) then pulled off the three-year-old double with Cobbity Chic ($8.60) in the fillies feature and Lifes A Jungle ($30) in the colts and geldings decider.
And just to top things off, he enjoyed a quinella in the colts and geldings 1,609-metre decider as Brads Luck ($7.90) ran a 1.1m second.
“It was a good night at the office,” Hewitt said.
“We went in there with a few live hopes. I had two runners in each final and I thought there were a few good chances amongst them, but often they can go well and run second or third. It was something else to get three wins.
“It’s up there, the first Group 1 [win] was a great one and winning the Gold Crown was big again – the local Group 1. This really rates up there, I wouldn’t say it’s on top of those other ones, but we are certainly happy as a team.”
Each of the wins had their merits for Hewitt – in the case of Write About Lexy it was that her 1:55.9 effort came first up after a month away from racing.
“Lexy has sort of being going good the whole time until her last time when things didn’t go quite right and she had a bit of a cold we found out. I probably drove her a bit hard that night, she went forward and tired, so she had about a month between runs,” he said.
“I was quietly confident with her, but I wanted to drive her nice and quiet, do no work with her and see if she could come home over the top. That’s what she did, just sort of stalked into the race and when they straightened up she was full of running … she really won with a leg in the air as they say.”
Bred and owned by Lex Crosby, Write About Lexy is a full sister to 2014 Breeders Challenge Blue winner Read About Lexy, while her sister Im With Lexy ran second in 2016.
Hewitt was happy to see Crosby enjoy more success – a feeling that extended to the other winning owners as well.
“Cobbity Chic, she’s a really big filly and she’s just come along in leaps and bounds all season … she has really shown me some tough qualities,” he said.
“It was really satisfying to get her home for her owner Sue Robinson, she’s a local cabbie, and she hasn’t been able to talk to anyone because she’s too busy crying she’s that excited!
“Ray Connolly, he had Lifes A Jungle and he’s been quite a good client now for a number of years.
“He was probably the biggest surprise. His form was only average throughout the season, consistent but nothing brilliant.”
Saturday night’s treble continued Hewitt’s solid record in the series as well – he now has eight wins over the last four years.
“Coming into Saturday night we’d had five Group 2 winners in those races and the three the other night made it eight – they’re a $50 grand race, so that’s really good,” he said.
