Apprentice Tom Sherry has continued his flying start to the new season with his first metropolitan double at Warwick Farm.
Indentured to trainer Mark Newnham, the Irish-born Sherry has recently made the transition to town and earlier this month teamed with his boss to break his city maiden aboard Fulmina.
On Wednesday, he notched another milestone with a starring role at the midweek program in Sydney.
In testing conditions, the promising young rider dictated throughout to open his account aboard former New Zealander Bothered in the Melanie Martines Handicap (1100m).
Sherry made it back-to-back wins a race later when the Richard Litt-trained Wander prevailed in a slogging duel with runner-up Ocean Go.
A four-time winner in New Zealand, Bothered ($3.80) remains unbeaten in two starts for trainer Clare Cunningham after relishing Wednesday’s heavy conditions
“She just travelled so well. She feels very comfortable in the going which is a big help,” Sherry said.
While Wander was successful as a $2.80 favourite, the waterlogged conditions proved to be the undoing of several fancied runners on the program.
Team Hawkes four-year-old Kingsheir, who holds a nomination for the Cox Plate, was sent out an odds-on favourite in the second race but failed to handle the ground and finished third.
The race was won by Heza Gentleman who gave trainers Mitchell and Desiree Kearney their first city win.
Trainer Chris Waller predicted bigger things from lightly-raced filly Joviality, who set the tone for the day with a frontrunning display.
“We thought she might have been measuring up to our better two-year-olds but time was against her and now she is starting to mature into herself,” Waller said.
“She did everything right today and showed good acceleration at the top of the straight.”
A $300,000 yearling purchase, Joviality is raced by Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds and gave Waller and jockey Tommy Berry the first leg of an early double.
The pair also combined to win the day’s staying race with Space Is Deep, who Waller believes can measure up to black-type in the future.