By Geoff Whittle

Jessica Valas’ consistent riding form continued at Northam on Thursday when she landed a winning double. Once again she piloted a long-shot winner in an early leg of the daily quaddie thus knocking out many players. The quadrellas have proved a popular form of novelty betting for racing followers and to be eliminated in the first leg is a bitter pill to swallow.

In recent Northam quaddies Valas won on Minnie May at $16, last week she blew punters out of the water with the $78 chance In No Danger. On Thursday she rode Scanned perfectly at $40 in the first leg of the quaddie and then on the more favoured Minnie May again in the final event.

Outsiders or not, Valas, firmly ensconced as a senior jockey, is riding well and it does not seem that long ago that she was Kalgoorlie-Boulder Race Club’s leading rider as an apprentice in 2004.

In an all female quinella and south-west trained first three, Valas placed the Greg Carige Bunbury trained Scanned fourth on the fence while Chloe Chatfield was endeavouring to lead all the way again with the Harvey mare Cardera.

In what was Thursday’s feature event, the Healthy Fast Food Handicap sponsored by Healthway, Scanned ran on to win easily, Cardera held second and Mark Bairstow’s Eternal Power took third.

Bigamist was disappointing in running a fair fifth behind Scanned but Haste again ran on resolutely from the tail for 4th and is a filly with staying talent.

Liz Strempel’s Minnie May again came from well back (12th) to win the last and cap off a good day for Valas.

Kasabian, with Paul Harvey sporting Darren McAuliffe’s Impressive Racing’s silks appealed as the best winner on the day in the Go for Two & Five long maiden over 1600 metres.

Harvey had no hesitation in riding the city placed Kasabian as the best horse in the race by going straight to the front despite a wide gate. It was a procession from that point on with the margin being 4½ lengths.

Not far behind Kasabian in impressing was Adam Durrant’s debutant Challis who won his maiden over 1000 metres from the sit outside of the leader.

Challis is from winning blood lines being by Desert Prince from Flaming Heart, the dam of GIII winner Suspicion. Never Forgotten was gallant from 11th in defeat behind Challis and will be winning soon over more ground.

As far a jockeys go, Russell Stewart and Mark Miller would not be offended by being classed as veterans and both have shown recently that they still have the “smarts” to be good riders.

Stewart was successful in race one the 1100 metre Eat More Fruit Maiden on Ted Martinovich’s newcomer Bad Funk Stripe. Miller got Joe Miller’s 21 start maiden Arrunga home in his 1400 metre event.

Craig Staples on Maxlor and Paul King aboard La La Bamba fought out race six in an event where the form students lost their bearings completely.

Two starts ago Maxlor ran third at Kojonup and albeit had been for a spell but La La Bamba ran a 7½ length 5th at Port Hedland last start on May 24th and is now trained by Tricia Roberts at Ascot.

At her first run for trainer Colin Webster, Sexy Babe put up a top performance in running second to apprentice Ben Kennedy’s winner Wonder Weed in race seven, the Two Fruits Everyday Handicap.

Sexy Babe raced at the tail but flew home to go down narrowly.