THE WILLIAMS, DUNN AND OLIVER BATTLE FOR THE PREMIERSHIP IS LIKELY TO GO DOWN TO THE WIRE

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Craig Williams’ treble at Flemington on Saturday boosted his metropolitan win total for the season to fifty and propelled him to the top of the Jockey’s Premiership in Victoria ... but the race is far from over.

With a month of the season left to run (nine metropolitan meetings), Williams is just one win ahead of Dwayne Dunn (49 winners) who, in turn, is only one win ahead of Damien Oliver (48 winners).

The three winners on Saturday was the good point for Williams. The downside of the day was that he picked up a suspension for his ride in the last race on the card as confirmed in the Stewards Report from the meeting.

'Craig Williams (Jessy Belle) - pleaded guilty to a charge of careless riding under the provisions of AR137(a), the carelessness being that near the 200m he rode his mount to the inside of Oh So Assertive (NZ) to obtain clear running and in doing so was not clear of Iteration (FR) resulting in Iteration (FR) being taken in off its course and having to be steadied.

'Craig Williams had his licence to ride in races suspended for a period to commence at midnight June 27th and to expire at midnight July 4th, a total of seven race meetings (two metropolitan, five provincial). In assessing penalty Stewards took into account Craig Williams’ guilty plea and good record and that the carelessness was in the low range.'

Just as an aside, the horse Williams interfered with ... Iteration ... was ridden by Dwayne Dunn.

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If you want to stretch a point you could say that the metropolitan trainer’s title in Victoria is a two horse race.

Darren Weir currently leads Peter Moody by six winners, a margin that can be reeled in in theory, but it will be a hard task in practice.

Craig Williams