BY COL HODGES

Clayton Gallagher rode 5 winners at the Warren TAB meeting on Tuesday with the Robb family being very much involved in the final leg of the momentous feat.

For a major part of his apprenticeship Gallagher was apprenticed to Rodney Robb at Nyngan with Rodney’s son Brett Robb being the stable foreman.

Brett Robb has since become a leading trainer at Dubbo and Clayton Gallagher who also moved to Dubbo is usually the first choice jockey for the stable.

After riding winners for David Smith (I Like Big Putts, $6.50), Michael Mulholland (Jet Empress, $3 to $1.95 favourite), Garry Lunn (Raiding, $6.50 to $4.60 favourite) and Luke Pepper ((Powderfinger, $3.70), Clayton Gallagher had the chance to ride 5 winners at a meeting for the first time when mounting Hardly The End for the 1000 metres Benchmark 58 Handicap.

The Brett Robb trained Hardly The End was resuming from a spell while the top weight in the 12 horse field was the Rodney Robb trained Hurn Court, winner of the last two starts at Walgett and Nyngan.

Luckyimwithaimee and Laffing Waters led at the top of the straight with Hardly The End then getting a rails run while Hurn Court (Michael Heagney) was finishing well on the outside.

Heagney and Gallagher are very strong jockeys and their mounts responded to fight out a tremendous finish with Hardly The End ($4.60 favourite) prevailing by a half head over Hurn Court ($14) which had an extra 3 kg handicap to carry, while Mamelon (Andrew Banks, $9) was almost two lengths away in third place.

Overall, Clayton Gallagher had 6 rides at the meeting for 5 wins and a fifth pacing on Wandering Jack ($2.50 favourite) which had every chance in the 1200 metres Maiden Handicap won by the Clint Lundholm, Dubbo trained Skyforger..

Hemmed on the fence turning for home, Skyforger ($4.60) was eased around heels by talented apprentice Ronald Simpson and raced to a two lengths win over Bijara (Kody Nestor, $19) and The Percentage (Andrew Banks, $9.50).

Ronald Simpson went close to a winning double when his mount Demeurer came with a strong run from the tail of the field in the 1400 metres Benchmark 58 Handicap to figure in a four way photo finish.

Bursting through the pack from midfield, the Jane Clement, Armidale trained Hombre Grande (Chelsea Hillier, $9) won by a head from Demeurer ($6) with Aisle Six (Shayleigh Ingelse, $9) a half neck away third and the leader Ringside a close fourth.

Next meeting (TAB) at Warren is on November 12 and features the QUBE Logistics Cotton Cup.