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Tuesday, 5 January 2010: The big story to come out of last Saturday's Stony Creek fixture was the emergence of apprentice jockey Patrick Keane, who rode four winners in a terrific performance.

Keane had 17 career wins coming into the meeting, after having his first ride at Bairnsdale just on 12 months ago.

To ride a quartet of winners at this stage of his career is an incredible effort and signals a very bright future for the youngster, who has astute trainer Doug Harrison as his master.

Keane had never ridden a double prior to the meeting and after riding his first two winners (for Harrison) he was delighted to have notched his first double.

“I've got a couple more good rides later in the day, so hopefully it is not over yet,” he quipped and was all smiles as he returned to scale after the final event of the day with four under his belt.

The first of the Harrison winners was Tarantalina, a mare that has a strong connection with Gippsland and in particular, Bairnsdale.

She is the daughter of Triantular, a mare formerly trained by the late Greg Counihan in Bairnsdale and Tarantalina was the final horse Greg bred.

“Greg's wife Robyn is a part owner as well as some other relations and he asked me to train her before he died, so to win this race is quite special,” Harrison said.

“To be honest she has been a real handful to train. She will kick you if she gets the chance and is very hard to handle. She even put a good dent in my car,” he said.

“It has taken some time to get her to settle and get her mind on the job, but she is as tough as anything.”

His second winner, Humiliton, is a mare Harrison said has had her share of problems.

“She showed us a fair bit early and then has just had little things go wrong and we have sorted out the best way to ride her,” he said.
JUST A BIT OF PROOF BUDDY

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