James Bridge picked up an Easter Monday treat on Monday when Zulu Smoke struck gold in the Max Collins Memorial Sprint.
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Jumping out of the red box at Bathurst, the Orange trainer's pre-race favourite did the trip easy, leading essentially from start to finish to clock a time of 17.63 over the 307m at Kennerson Park.
Bridge's victory in the fourth was followed Londonderry trainer Darren Sultana's success in race five, his one-year-old black dog Crocodile Vella charging home to record victory.
After a slow start from the boxes in the fifth race of the meeting (450 metres), the $2.60 favourite, who was jumping from box four, found himself in third after a push and a shove as the runners jump from the boxes.
Mischief Pal ($34) had taken the early lead, with Polly Wilson ($6) trailling in second, but the Sultana-trained hound worked his way forward and hit the front as they came into the final turn.
From there Crocodile Vella built on her lead and never looked back to win the race, ahead of the Paul Steedman-trained Polly Wilson and Sarah Hopkins-trained Okay Curtly ($31) in second and third respectively.
The hound's win came in a time of 25.93 seconds, 2.75 seconds ahead of the second placed Polly Wilson.
It's now Crocodile Vella's third consecutive win, after winning at the Bathurst track on March 29 and at Richmond on March 17.
And he's had a total of five career starts and has never failed to get a placing, after a third in his maiden run at Richmond on March 3 and a second at the same track on March 10.
"He's going pretty good. He's learning how to race, so he's putting it together," he said.
"We'll more than likely come back to Bathurst, give a few more goes around here."
Crocodile Vella, from Fernando Blue x Oakley Park, gets his name from his owner Laurie Vella who likes to name his dogs after himself according to Sultana.
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