Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
The Markham family celebrated in style on Friday night when Ash Markham trained his 100TH winner and his 19-year-old son Ajay landed his first metropolitan-class winner as a reinsman.
Codename Marcus, a seven-year-old Victorian-bred pacer, brought up the 41-year-old Markham’s century of winners as a trainer when Ajay drove him to a thrilling victory in the JP’s Nights Of Thunder first qualifying heat over 1730m.
Codename Marcus was a $32 outsider from the No. 3 barrier and Ajay Markham drove him patiently and he was seventh at the bell before being switched three wide passing the 600m mark.
“Then we were forced four wide down the back, and I thought we could be in a bit of trouble,” said Markham. “We went five wide on the corner, and he didn’t handle the turn all that good. But once we straightened, he changed into another gear.
“It was a good feeling going past the line for my first metro-class winner. He came out reasonably quick, but we got crossed by a couple of the fancies and I was happy to let him settle. The speed was on early which suited us.”
Markham, who works full-time at Aiden De Campo’s Hopeland stable, has now driven 54 winners in a most promising career, and Codename Marcus has been a handy performer for Ash Markham, his wife Tamara and his brother Dale, having had 74 starts for 13 wins, 17 placings and $123,734 in prizemoney.
Ash Markham was not at Gloucester Park on Friday night because he was at Busselton where he had four drives for one win, behind the John Graham-trained Village Dee Jay in a 2400m event for mares.