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By Greg Prichard

Taree trainer Tony Ball is giving apprentice jockey Mollie Fitzgerald plenty of opportunities to find her way and the pair have struck up a winning combination.

Their third winner together came at Sunday’s meeting at Taree when Ljungberg won the Manning River Hotel Taree Open Handicap over 1609m.

Promising apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald. Image by Trackside Photography

Fitzgerald, who is indentured to Ball, only began riding in races on August 18. She is the daughter of former popular jockey Malcolm Fitzgerald who rode a Group 2 Villiers Stakes winner in Post Elect at Randwick.

It took Molly until September 16 to ride her first winner, when she did it in style with a double at Bowraville, and after tasting success at Taree she now has three winners from her first 18 rides.

The vast majority of her rides so far have been on Ball-trained horses and she has shared two winners with her boss.

Ljungberg started as an $8 chance and Fitzgerald had the eight-year-old gelding in fourth or fifth position during the run.

She conserved the horse’s energy, never leaving the rail and taking an inside run when the horses ahead of her fanned out on the home turn.

Taking the short-cut helped make the difference between Ljungberg winning or potentially being run down by minor placegetters Hunter Bred and Scorched Land, which both came down the centre of the track but couldn’t reel him in.

Ball said Fitzgerald was a fast learner who was improving all the time.

“It’s hard for a four kilogram-claiming apprentice riding against experienced jockeys, but Mollie thinks about each ride she has, she listens to the advice she’s given and she’s making better decisions every time she goes out there,” he said.

“It was a terrific ride on Ljungberg and Mollie will stay on him now when he runs in the Port Macquarie Cup here at Taree on Friday week.

“People thought the horse wouldn’t run a mile, but now he’s won at his first-ever try at that distance so we’ll give him a crack at the 2000 metres in the cup. I think he can run 2000 as long as he’s ridden very quietly early so he can finish it off.”

Ljungberg was the second leg of a winning double for Ball. He also trained four-year-old gelding Bantarki, ridden by Aaron Bullock, to win the Variety Postie Bike Dash Country Boosted Class 2 Handicap over 1005m as the $2.80 favourite.

Bullock is in red-hot form at the moment. He rode a double at Taree - Lion Class, trained by Glen Milligan at Taree, was his other winner - to go with a double for him at the Scone meeting on Friday. He has already ridden 18 winners this season - 13 at country tracks and five at the provincials.

Newcastle’s Paul Perry also trained a winning double, with 3yo colt Edge Of Midnight in the Equimillion Thoroughbred Event Maiden Handicap over 1308m and 4yo gelding Senshi in the SC Construction & Excavation Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1408m.

Perry’s winners were both ridden by female apprentices - Anna Roper (Edge Of Midnight) and Camille Houlgatte (Senshi).

View the full results with race replays for Taree here