Up-and-comer Rikki Tikki Tavi has taken her connections on a wild ride through this year’s Auckland Cup carnival, winning two $50,000 races in heart-stopping finishes.

Derby day last Saturday was an afternoon of noses and short heads, and Rikki Tikki Tavi’s squeaker over Memories Only was the tightest of all.

History repeated on Auckland Cup day this afternoon as Rikki Tikki Tavi charged home from second-last in the Winger Maserati 1200. The leader Howbowdat fought back, and Ja Ja Binks lunged through the inside to set up a three-way photo finish.

“Not again,” Rikki Tikki Tavi’s co-trainer Chris Gibbs said.

In an exact repeat of last week, Rikki Tikki Tavi scored by a nose. Ja Ja Binks took second, with the same margin back to Howbowdat in third.

“Winning two $50,000 races is good,” said Gibbs, who trains in partnership with Donna Logan. “She’s not a very big horse, but she’s really brave.”

Logan paid just $16,000 to buy Rikki Tikki Tavi as a yearling at Karaka. With five wins from 11 career starts, including four out of five this season, the four-year-old has earned $94,500 in prize-money.

“With the win last week as well, this is like winning a $100,000 race,” said part-owner Shayne Heape, a former president of the Whangarei Racing Club. “She’s racing out of her skin at the moment.”

As well as completing a carnival double of her own, Rikki Tikki Tavi provided the second leg of a race-to-race double for her trainers. Just over half an hour earlier, her stablemate Richie McHorse had edged out Major Tom in an all-Ruakaka finish to the Crombie Lockwood 2100.

Richie McHorse was ridden by Trudy Thornton, while her daughter Sam Collett rode Rikki Tikki Tavi to victory.

“I guess that’s a bit of an unusual double, but it’s good,” Collett said. “I think this could be a black-type horse in the making – she’s got a very sharp turn of foot.”

Trainers Jenny and Bob Vance and their daughter Maija won the first race on today’s card with Its My Destiny, and they got within two noses of a repeat result with that mare’s half-brother Howbowdat. The half-siblings are the Vance stable’s only runners at Ellerslie today.