By Jonny Turner\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first day of the Southern Surge turned into the Nathan Williamson show.<\/p>\n
Williamson put on a driving clinic, reining home a career-best six winners in the sulky at Winton on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the way, the reinsman joined elite company by passing 1200 driving wins in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
While Williamson had a stronger book of drives than he’s had right through the winter, he still had to execute on the track.<\/p>\n
And he did exactly that.<\/p>\n
“I had a really good book and it worked out good.”<\/p>\n
“I had some good draws and some nice horses to drive.”<\/p>\n
“To get six winners is a massive thrill and to have all of the horses race well was great as well.”<\/p>\n
Four of Williamson’s winners came in his own colours, including debutant Rakmaknra.<\/p>\n
The pacer thrived under raceday conditions, clearing out to win by nearly eight lengths.<\/p>\n
“He was really good, he hasn’t set the world alight at the trials but he is a very genuine horse.”<\/p>\n
“I was rapt with him today, he was impressive, I’m totally thrilled.”<\/p>\n
“He was the surprise package and probably the highlight of my day.”<\/p>\n
Group 1-placed filly Indulge Me ran to a regulation win in her return to racing ahead of what is a big spring and summer campaign.<\/p>\n
“She got a nice run through and worked into the clear, once that happened and she found the lead she was going to be hard to beat.”<\/p>\n
“She’s a lovely filly and she has some big targets later on, so hopefully she keeps stepping up.”<\/p>\n
Simply Amazing made the most of barrier one and Sunday’s mile racing when sprinting along the inner to score.<\/p>\n
Rise Up N Dance capped his consistent recent form when running to a deserved victory in Williamson’s colours.<\/p>\n
The reinsman linked also up with two impressive winners outside his own team in the trotting gait.<\/p>\n
Williamson combined with trainer Brent McIntyre with Delphyne, who cleared out to score by almost four lengths.<\/p>\n
“She’s a lovely filly, I have been high on her right the way through.”<\/p>\n
“She ran a nice third first up, then made a mistake next.”<\/p>\n
“Back to the mobile today, with a nice draw she was too strong.”<\/p>\n
Williamson also combined with his father Phil Williamson, kicking his day off with a win in Sunday’s opener with Redback Bob.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old looked smart, clearing out to win by four lengths in his debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jonny Turner\u00a0 The first day of the Southern Surge turned into the Nathan Williamson show. Williamson put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-556649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}