POPULAR Warrnambool jockey Declan Bates scored his second Flemington victory when he guided imported galloper Haky to win a $108,000 open handicap on Saturday.
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Haky, trained at Ballarat by Archie Alexander, defeated Sin To Win by three-quarters-of-a-length with Good Idea back in third place while last year's Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare was unplaced in the 2600-metre race.
The Irish-born Bates, who has been based in Warrnambool since September 2015 told The Standard it's a thrill to ride a winner anywhere but to taste success at Flemington was extra special.
"Haky's my second winner at Flemington," he said.
"My first Flemington victory was on Begood Toya Mother in May last year.
"Flemington has so much history it's a wonderful course to ride and it's great to win on Haky for Archie.
"He's been a big supporter of mine. I usually go up to Ballarat once a week to ride trackwork for Archie.
"It was a strong win by Haky. He put the writing on the wall for a win with a very good run in the Easter Cup but we were running against Vow And Declare on Saturday and I thought we may struggle.
"Vow And Declare may have had an off-day. I think there's still a bit of improvement in Haky."
From his 21 starts Haky has won four races. His victory on Saturday was his first in Australia.
Meanwhile, Kuramae, trained by Warrnambool mentor Matthew Williams and with Dean Yendall in the saddle, hung on to defeat Beekeeper in a three-year-old race over 1400 metres.
The win took Kuramae's stake earnings to more then $168,000 from ten starts.
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