October
OctoberLow-hanging fruit
Just watched the Waterhouse/Bott team bring a horse all the way to Coonamble and win the $75.000 cup. The same stable won the Port Macquarie Cup ($200,000) earlier in the week.
The other couple of country cups that have had prizemoney increases have also been gobbled up by the city trainers (Waller and Pfieffer).
When Racing NSW announced the increases I’m sure it was well meant but in reality it’s just more fruit on the sideboard for the city boys, meaning a country trainer/owner has no chance of winning their hometown cup.
I hope after a period of time that Racing NSW reviews all of the cups and looks at either quarantining some cups for country-trained horses or some other method so that country racing can move forward and grow.
Ballina (NSW)