Respected horseman on cusp of milestone

RESPECTED horseman Nathan Turnbull is on the cusp of registering a personal milestone following his victory at Club Menangle last night.

Thanks to his success with handy pacer Jorge Street, Turnbull’s training tally sits on 999 wins.

Breaking his maiden with Sky Hero in Lithgow on November 23, 2003, Turnbull hopes to crack 1000 in Young on Tuesday night, where he has 15 runners engaged at the provincial meeting.

“In the last couple of weeks getting close to 1000 sort of snuck up on us a bit,” Turnbull said. ” Jett was chasing his 500th driving win, which he recently got and I wasn’t too far behind, so I knew it was getting close.

“I’ve got a big team in at Young, so hopefully I can get to 1000 while we’re there.

“It takes just under two-and-a-half hours to get to Young and I’ll have to use my seven-horse truck and two four-horse floats.”

As for Turnbull’s latest triumph, Jorge Street was driven to perfection by Luke McCarthy to upset his more fancied rivals as a $12 shot.

At the tail of the at the top of the home straight, Jorge Street unleashed a scintillating sprint to score by a metre-and-a-half from Franco Novelist, with Mike Ross a metre away third.

Covering the mile in 1:49.7, the son of Captaintreacherous took his record to 13 wins and 16 placings from 54 starts for earnings of $214,840.

“That was a pretty good run,” Turnbull said. “He was giving them all a start turning for home and finished it strongly.

“The race was run to suit and he made the most of it.

“I had him in the Inter Dominion last year, but it was too rich for him, so I’ll give it a miss this time and hope to make the most of the races at Menangle while the top ones are away during the next couple of months.”