THE Lagoon's Amanda Turnbull continued her love affair with the annual Little Red Jug Final on Friday night, taking out the Dubbo feature for the third successive year.
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Turnbull was a clinical as expected in Friday night's event, driving $1.04 favourite Firestorm Red to a commanding and comfortable 3.5 metres win.
The second of five features contested during the Carnival of Cups meeting, the Little Red Jug Final (1,720m) saw the most comfortable win recorded.
The final margin may not have seemed dominant, but Turnbull barely moved in the gig as the colt trained be her father, Steve Turnbull, made it four wins in succession.
He's always been a nice little horse but he was a little bit weak. Now he's come back a little stronger.
- Amanda Turnbull
"His three-year-old form has been really good the whole time and he's come back a little stronger," Turnbull said, Firestorm Red having scored five wins and two seconds this preparation.
It marked a hat-trick of Little Red Jug wins for Turnbull after claiming the past two finals with Jonah Jones and Our Positano.
"I didn't realise that, but it's been a good race," she laughed.
Limbo Larry ($126) and Hit The Track ($61) both went hard early but Firestorm Red easily took control after starting gate one.
The leader then didn't then come under any more pressure until late on, when Lightning Scooter ($21) peeled wide and surged forward while Tulhurst Santanna ($18) also threatened.
But Turnbull did all she needed to and went on to win in a mile-rate of 1:59:1, setting a new track record in the process.
"Once the draw came out and he drew it all worked out well," Turnbull said.
"He got a bit of pressure but he's funny, he doesn't worry about that too much and it was good."
Luke Hooper and Lightning Scooter were second, ahead of Nathan Hurst's Tulhurst Santanna.
Ange knows him as good as anyone and has always driven him great so there was no worries about that.
- Katie Jenner
Meanwhile, Ned Pepper's win in Quamby's Stayers Cup (2,525m) sparked wild celebrations among connections.
It had been a frustrating recent run for Katie Jenner's proven country campaigner, as feature wins proved hard to come by.
But Bathurst driver Angela Hedges produced one of the drives of the night to deliver the eight-year-old gelding victory in the $16830 feature.
"To win another cup, he really deserves it," Jenner said.
"We've been around in I think every cup this season and he's been drawing bad and not having great luck.
"But finally we got the draw to use it and show how good he is and put it to some of the really big names.
Jenner also had plenty of praise for Hedges.
"Ange knows him as good as anyone and has always driven him great so there was no worries about that," she said.
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