Aaron Sweeney enjoyed a red-letter day at Fannie Bay on Saturday, booting home a treble of winners from as many rides on the five-race card and collecting a milestone 200th career success in the process.

The 41-year old Irishman started the day on the right note, producing a copybook ride to land his 200th win aboard The Albion in the Ladbrokes Top 2/3/4 Betting Handicap (1600m).

In his milestone win aboard the Peter Stennett trained 8yo son of Shamexpress, Sweeney settled his mount third in the clear behind pacemaker Style And Grace and Miss Moov.

He was right there to challenge rounding the home turn and collared Style And Grace in the last 50m to win by a length, with World Affairs, also trained by Stennett, third a length and a-half back. “He gave me a lovely ride, and it was a nice way to bring up 200,” said a delighted Sweeney. “He has a good record at the mile and I thought he’d be somewhere in the finish,” he added.

Sweeney rode his first winner, Monamee, at Bedgerebong, NSW, on February 16 2013, the first of two winners on that day. Prior to relocating to Darwin in mid -2023, sweeney had amassed 150 winners mainly in NSW and Canberra, and he has continued to rack up the successes in the Territory ever since.

Not content with bringing up the double ton, Sweeney was in the winner’s circle again in the very next event, the TAB Handicap (1300m), when Global Wonder produced a phenomenal performance. Carrying the equal topweight of 61kg and jumping from barrier seven in the nine – horse field, Global Wonder was never closer than four-wide in the run as Kissing Supido led the way.

Sweeney was unable to secure any cover and was actually five-wide around the home turn, but the 8yo son of Hinchinbrook kept coming in the home straight to collar the leaders at 150m and hold out the fast finishes of Crazy Brave and Frawley by just over a length.

Trained by Gary Clarke, Global Wonder has been a bridesmaid more often than not, but his latest win was his 10th at his 64th attempt, and with 16 seconds and 16 thirds as well, he has stakes now of almost $273,000.

And to cap off a memorable day for the affable rider, Sweeney guided Achacha, trained, trained by Phil Cole, to a strong win over pacemaker Miss Black Diamond and a game Tugela Falls in the ROANT TROBIS Handicap (1000m).

After settling fifth in the run, Achacha was angled across heels by her rider rounding the home turn and set out after those in front of her. Miss Black Diamond still held sway at the 100m mark, but Achacha had the momentum and went on by to score by a length and a half, with Tugela Falls holding onto third just over two lengths back.

Achacha, a maiden before this win, is a daughter of Xtravagant and has now had seven starts for a win, a second and a third. She had been threatening to break through for a while and now that she has, another success may not be far away.

Story courtesy of Andrew O’Toole