Diminutive gelding Hooker Road overcame a mistake which nearly caused him to fall to score a tenacious win in the Australian Hurdle at Sandown.Carrying topweight of 68kg, Hooker Road all but sold out at the jump near the 1400m but recovered well and went on to score a narrow but tough win.Ridden by Brad McLean, who was having only his second ride for the Colin and Cindy Alderson stable, Hooker Road ($6) was handy throughout and went on to score by a neck from Yamanaura ($8) with Juan Carlos ($8)

Diminutive gelding Hooker Road overcame a mistake which nearly caused him to fall to score a tenacious win in the Australian Hurdle at Sandown.

Carrying topweight of 68kg, Hooker Road all but sold out at the jump near the 1400m but recovered well and went on to score a narrow but tough win.

Ridden by Brad McLean, who was having only his second ride for the Colin and Cindy Alderson stable, Hooker Road ($6) was handy throughout and went on to score by a neck from Yamanaura ($8) with Juan Carlos ($8) three-quarters of a length away third.

"He recovered alright after that, he gave it a fair hit, but he jumped so well for the rest of the race he was able to get away with it," McLean said.

However favourite punters were left lamenting when Craig Durden was catapulted from the saddle when Pentiffic ($3.30) blundered on landing at the third last hurdle.

Co-trainer Brian Johnston said Pentiffic was unhurt in the incident accept for a bloody nose from hitting the ground.

Hooker Road has belied his small stature and has found his niche as a jumper winning three hurdles and finishing runner-up in the other four of his seven starts.

A nervy gelding, Hooker Road shakes and sweats on float trips to the races but it hasn't stopped him from performing well.

The Istidaad gelding won the Ted Best Hurdle at Moonee Valley in June last year, finished second to Desert Master in the Galleywood Hurdle at Warrnambool and won the Jack Dow Memorial Hurdle at Mornington in May before Saturday's 3400m feature success.

"We always thought he would be much better at his second season (of jumping)," Cindy Alderson said.

"He's only a small horse and we are going to have to be pretty careful about where we place him now.

"But he's been fantastic over the fences and his stamina is without doubt and I just think his tenacity got him there today."

Trustus gave Johnston and his partner Fran Houlahan a welcome change of luck after Pentiffic's mishap when the three-year-old won the Samson Hcp (1400m), earning a shot at the Winter Championship series.

"He's still green and goofy and learning. We really think he'll be a 2000-metre country Cups horses next year, but just to teach him to race we've been running him in shorter races," Johnston said.

The Bertolini gelding gave Craig Williams the first leg of a winning double with the jockey later scoring on the Bevan and Richard Laming-trained Benelli ($5), another Winter Championship contender, in the Le Pine Funerals Cup (1600m).

He drew level with the suspended Damien Oliver on 63 wins in their battle for Melbourne jockeys' premiership honours with just under seven weeks of the season remaining.