A look at some of the support races on Saturday’s Sandown card.
Winner Pinn puts pressure on his 'lucky charm'
Star young Kiwi jockey Wiremu Pinn could be in Melbourne for good, but he is not the only one whose might be around longer than first thought.
The 24-year-old's girlfriend Tayla Mitchell might also have to make herself comfortable after proving herself his 'lucky charm' at Sandown on Saturday.
Mitchell, New Zealand's leading apprentice, joined Pinn in Melbourne on Friday, the day before he rode a winning treble at Sandown, which were his first Saturday city winners since arriving from New Zealand late last month.
"I picked up my girlfriend (from the airport) last night, so she's here and she might be my good luck charm, so I might have to keep her here for a bit longer."
Pinn closed out his treble with victory aboard the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Deepstrike in the final race of the day.
Earlier he celebrated victory at his first ride for star trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, aboard Extratwo, before following up with a win aboard Frigid for John Leek Jnr.
O'Sullivan to hand over Legend a winner
Dan O'Sullivan was happy to step in and babysit Archie Alexander's team while his fellow Ballarat horseman served a suspension and he is happy to send Starry Legend back to Alexander a winner.
The speedy gelding has not enjoyed the best of luck in his past two starts, the first for Alexander and most recently for O'Sullivan when runner-up to Pintoff in the Listed Bel Esprit Stakes, but showcased his trademark speed to run his rivals ragged in Saturday's 1000m BM100 sprint.
Alexander's six-week suspension expires next week and O'Sullivan is happy for his former trainer to take back control of planning his preparation.
"He'll go back to Archie's next week, so it won't be much of my problem," O'Sullivan said.
"Nothing went completely right today, but he was just too strong, too fit and did a good job."
Starry Legend ($4) registered the fifth win of his 21-start career when he denied Nasraawy ($4.40) by three-quarters-of-a-length, with Esta La Roca ($5.50) 1-1/4 lengths back third.
Hard To Cross proves just that
With good performances behind subsequent Group 1 South Australian Derby winner Dunkel on his formcard, Jye Mcneil headed to Sandown confident Hard To Cross would be hard to beat third up and that is precisely the way it played out.
The Patrick Payne-trained gelding dug deep to hold off the challenge of Golden Path in the $150,000 IVE> 3YO Handicap (1600m).
It was the son of All Too Hard's third run back from a spell that followed third and fourth placings behind Dunkel and McNeil endorsed Payne's placement.
"It's the first time I've been on him but he obviously put a nice couple of runs together, Paddy had him in really good condition for today and it was the right timing" the Melbourne Cup-winning jockey said.
