Albany trainer Samantha Faithfull celebrates the end of the season on career-best note with winning quartet

An overjoyed Samantha Faithfull celebrated her most successful day as a trainer with four winners at Percy Spencer Racecourse on Friday. The Faithfull stable saluted with Beautiful Baroque, Flick The Switch, Coatachino and Blue Line, claiming four of the six races on offer at Albany Racing Club to close the 2023-24 season. The foursome helped Faithfull move to third position in the Great Southern trainer of the year standings. Faithfull said it was a brilliant way for the stable to cap off a superb season for her and her staff. “It’s a good way to finish the whole year indeed, it’s a nice feeling,” she said. “I think it’s an absolutely fabulous result . . . it’s been a long year, we’ve had a pretty good season. “The horses have been pretty consistent and running in the money pretty consistently. “All my staff have helped me throughout the year (and) have been unbelievable.” Great Southern leading senior rider of the year, Faithfull’s daughter Natasha, won the ARC Awards Night 30th May At The Home Of ARC Handicap with Beautiful Baroque ($4.60), coming from sixth on the turn to destroy her rivals with a powerful sprint home to win by nearly three lengths over Magnaburma ($4.40). Samantha Faithfull lauded star four-year-old mare Beautiful Baroque’s form this season after three wins and four minor placings in nine starts. “What a super champ she is, she has only missed out twice this season,” she said. “She has definitely been the shining star. “I’ve got a whole new bunch of owners in Beautiful Baroque, and some of them have never owned a horse before and they’re absolutely stoked . . . so I’m pretty happy for them.” Natasha Faithfull opened her mother’s account in race one when she steered Flick The Switch ($3.30) to a one-length win over punter’s choice Matsoka ($2.35) before Lisa Staples guided Coatachino ($5) to victory in the Ryde Building Company Leading Apprentice Maiden (1500m). Apprentice Chanel Cooper steered Blue Line ($3.80) to an impressive victory over the fast-finishing Penned in the Albany Stockfeeds Trainer of the Year Handicap (1100m) — the third leg of Samantha Faithfull’s four winners. Samantha Faithfull is already setting her sights on next season, and is ready to unleash two-year-old duo Monty and Rebellious Lot. Albany trainer Paul Hunter claimed race five on the program with rising four-year-old and $2.10 favourite Heeza Beau, while Steve Wolfe capped a superb local season, with Catch These Hands ($5) winning the Western Racepix Horse of the Year Handicap (1500m). The victory for Wolfe made it 34 in total for the year — 12 in front of Rebecca Bayliss in second place, while Faithfull finished with 11 victories.