Williamson enjoyed his most successful day as a trainer, producing five winners — guiding them all to victory from the sulky, too.
"I’ve trained and driven four of my home ones before, but never this many, so it is a real thrill to win this many in one day," he said.
The swag of winners came with a nice bonus: they took Williamson from three behind Craig Ferguson in the Southland trainers’ premiership to one in front.
"Craig has had a super year, and it is a bit of a shame [for him now] because he has been in front throughout the year ...
"We are going to win as many as we can. We are coming down to the end of it now, and I have probably got the horse numbers, but it could be close."
Williamson plans to start up to eight horses at next week’s group 1 Invercargill Cup Day before taking a similar number to the final Southland meeting of the season at Gore the following week.
Ferguson could have just one horse starting between the two meetings, as several of his horses are enjoying a freshen-up.
Williamson’s winning run at Winton started with a hard-fought win from Major Envy who had to do a lot early in race 1.
Joeking was on his best behaviour to take out race 2 in the Williamson colours, then Miraculous produced a sparkling performance in race 4.
When quizzed on whether the 2-year-old could race in feature events for his age-group, Williamson did not hesitate when saying yes.
"I’ve been really happy with the way he’s been doing everything at home and progressing.
"Although he was pretty green on the front end today, he was impressive when I asked him [to extend].
"He’s a very progressive horse; I really like him ...
"We do have a bit of time for him, so we’ll take him into Invercargill next week and see what is there ... and then, maybe give him a freshen-up."
Williamson’s sequence continued when he produced Ruby Roe for a track-record win in race 6 before Itoje ran away from his rivals to take out race 8.
