BIRTHDAY boy Luke Patience insists the 470 Men’s contest is not ‘a two-horse race’ despite the British and Australian boats eking out a big advantage.

Portland ’s Patience and crewmate Stuart Bithell collected scores of three and four from their two races on Saturday to sit in second place overall with 12 points after six races.

Meanwhile the Australian triple World Champion pair, and pre-event favourites, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, picked up two race wins to overtake the Brits on the top of the leaderboard ahead of yesterday’s rest day.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders, of New Zealand, currently sit third with 31 points.

Patience, who turned 26 on Saturday, said the Aussies ‘cracked out a couple of bullets’ and added: “Good boys, they’re racing well.

“Me and Stu are happy to come away with another great solid day.

“We’re in a great place right now, we’re really happy to be where we are, if we can carry on doing what we’re doing the next four fleet races it puts us in a fantastic position.”

The duo are set to resume racing today with two events on the Weymouth Bay West Course, before two last fleet races tomorrow on the Portland Harbour course.

There will then be a rest day on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s double-point medal race for the top 10 boats of the 27-boat Men’s 470 fleet.

Patience added: “The Aussies are good at getting on a roll and we’re good at that too.

“They have had a string of three bullets in a row but their catchable.

“As I have said every day it’s not a two-horse race.

“Currently we’re doing a good job right now and we would take that going into the medal race but there are plenty of races left.”