Sport
10 April, 2026
Mendooran trainer dominates Lightning Ridge picnics
Jane Clement travelled to Lightning Ridge on Saturday, April 4, and went home with a heap of prize money
Raced at Lightning Ridge on Saturday, April 4, 2026
Mendooran trainer Jane Clement travelled to Lightning Ridge on Saturday with a big team of horses and went home with a truckload of prizemoney.
Clement won four races overall with the first three placegetters in two of those races, while she also won the Cup with Macleay ridden by apprentice Gabrielle Johnston.
Winner of the $75,000 Coonabarabran Showcase Cup in 2024, Macleay tackled a handy field in the 1200 metres Opal Miners Hall Of Fame Lightning Ridge Cup in which Toulon Factor and Gerety set the pace.
Well-ridden by Gabrielle Johnston, Macleay ($5) burst between runners over the closing stages to claim the Cup ahead of stablemates Extreme Merger (Georgina McDonnell, $3 favourite) and Toulon Factor (Billy Cray, $5.50).
Earlier, Jane Clement also landed the trifecta in the 1000 metres Gingie Gallop-Benchmark 58 Handicap when Adviser (Jacob Stiff, $6) led most of the way to beat Sidenay (Gabrielle Johnston, $3.40) and Brave Enough (Billy Cray, $7).
The very talented apprentice Jacob Stiff, for the first time rode four winners at a meeting, Adviser ($6), Johnny Boz ($2 favourite), St Roy ($3 favourite) all for Jane Clement and Selinya ($2 favourite) for Dubbo trainer Dat Lunn.
After wins at Gilgandra and Warren, St Roy completed the hat-trick when coming from midfield to beat the leader Hit Song (Angel Brennan, $5) and Acotango (Gabrielle Johnston, $9) in the 1200 metres Central West Machinery BM 45 Handicap.
Before a big crowd at Lightning Ridge, Narrabri trainer Nicole Shields and Dubbo apprentice Zoe Hunt combined to win the opening event with Airfield ($1.70 favourite) which led from the 300 metres to take out the 900 metres Melonas/Brown Maiden Plate from Gunna Reign (Billy Cray, $5) and Krasaki (Leanne Boyd, $4).
