FORMER Victorian trainer Craig Conron only has a small team of horses in work at his Devonport stables so winning races is imperative to his survival in his adopted state.
At Devonport last Wednesday Conron’s smart front-running five-year-old Crystal Reef made it successive wins when he staved off a late challenge from former Hong Kong galloper Yuppony in a benchmark 78 handicap over 1350 metres.
The win made up for Big Tilly’s narrow defeat in an earlier race in which she was run down in the last fee strides by Daunting Dancer and Wanaea.
Despite racing out of her rating grade, Crystal Reef showed enormous courage to fend of his rivals at the business end of proceedings.
It had been a month between runs for he gelding but Conron explained that the gelding had suffered a minor injury in a pool mishap an that he also had been bitten on the lip by a spider.
It was Crystal Reef’s fifth career win and his third in Tasmania.
Listen to what trainer Craig Conron had to say about Crystal Reef’s latest win.