Ferguson blew Pick6 bettors out of the water with a half-length win in race 6 behind Havinaravup. The Brendon McLellan-trained gelding paid $63.70 for the win in his second career start.
Ferguson kept dishing out the blood noses to punters when he produced a confident drive on Sunnivue Bay Boy in the c1-2 2700m junior drivers' pace. Ferguson took advantage of a slow pace and sent Sunnivue Bay Boy to the lead to never be headed, winning by 1 lengths.
Portobello trainer Steve Ashton said the Peruvian Hanover gelding was due for a change of luck''He'd ripped his leg open three times on a fence since his last win [at Timaru in September],'' he said said.
The 5yr-old almost put his start on Thursday night at risk when he knocked the scab off the leg when being transported to the track, but was passed fit to race.
Ferguson's third win - and Ashton's second - came with honest mare Better To Be Bad, who ran 2.41.8 in winning the 2200m feature mobile pace.
''If she gets the right run like tonight, she's very hard to beat,'' Ashton said.
Sixty Plus continued a fine run for the Night N Day Syndicate when she stepped up to the c1 trotting grade in style with a -length win.
Night N Day Lawrence owner-operator Owen Cameron said the operators of six other stores around the South Island had stayed in the syndicate after others had pulled out.
''We're very social and very noisy, so it's great,'' Cameron said.
Other winners for the syndicate have been Coughton Court (two wins), The Tin Man, who won twice for the syndicate in his nine-win career, and Timely Loch (three wins). The syndicate places its horses with Ryal Bush trainer Hamish Hunter, who prepared Sixty Plus to her second win from three starts for the syndicate, and Leithfield trainer Robbie Holmes.
''We've got a lot to thank Robbie and Carla [Robertson-Holmes] for. They've organised all of the horses for us.''
