Two “Aussie Battlers” Ross Craig and Gary Bowen opened Sundays meeting with a winner apiece and no doubt the celebrations at the bar would have been long and enjoyable.

Both Craig and Bowen are long time supporters of the KBRC and the Goldfields Tattersalls Club and to go back to back early in the program, made it a day to remember for both parties.

The dogs were barking that Ross Craig had Major Canny at peak fitness for the first event of the day the Goldfields Hotel Handicap and when Richard Rhodes was able to cross to the lead without too many problems, followers of the well backed $3.80 commodity were on good terms with themselves.

Major Canny sprinted clear of his rivals to win easily from Arachnid with Keys Ace finishing third ahead of the favourite Miss Appropriate, making ground into fourth.

Craig has won four races on the Goldfields with Major Canny since the good looking gelding transferred to his Kalgoorlie stables from the Bunbury yard of Ross Price.

Major Canny is the type of horse that holds his form once he finds it and should be followed over the coming weeks.

It was a similar tale for Gary Bowen in the Star and Garter Hotel Maiden with the well priced Bright Reason ($25) who had just recently entered the astute Bowen stable.

Also formerly trained in Bunbury by Ross Price, Bright Reason had displayed consistent form on Great Southern tracks but looked better suited in the Goldfields.

The Stormy’s Son gelding was expertly ridden by Misty Bazeley, settling just off the pace before he was angled out into the centre of the track for clear galloping room and stretching out nicely over the concluding stages to grab the consistent Zipfer right on the line.

The win of Bright Reason was the first leg of a Misty Bazeley double and luckily for the mother of two, she was able to repay her husband Aaron the trainer of Zipfer, when she led for most of the way on Midnight Train later on the program.

The win by Bright Reason was the first for the season for Bowen but judging by the closing finish from the three year old it won’t be the last.

A $10 all up on the first two winners would have returned $931to any well informed punters in the know!