Three feathers in Craig’s cap

By David Nagel
BORN and bred Cranbourne jockey Craig Williams had a career highlight on Saturday when he piloted the Leon Macdonald-trained Southern Speed to victory in the $2.6 million Caulfield Cup (2400m).
Starting from barrier three, Williams rode the race of his life on the four-year-old mare and had her perfectly positioned in fourth place for the majority of the mile-and-a-half journey.
When the whips started cracking, Williams had a lap full of horse and drove Southern Speed to the line to win running away by a length and a half from Green Moon, with Tullamore in third place.
Williams has had a long association with numerous racing identities throughout the region, and in 2007 watched on as his good friend Vlad Duric won the Caulfield Cup aboard Master O’Reilly.
The Caulfield Cup win gives Williams success in three out of Australia’s top four races; he previously won the 2006 Golden Slipper aboard Miss Finland and the same year triumphed aboard Fields of Omagh in the W.S. Cox Plate.
The only major missing from the Williams’ resume is the Melbourne Cup.
That might all change on 1 November.