Goulburn trainers Emma and Lucy Longmire (identical twins) both had runners in Saturday’s TAB Highway Handicap at Randwick.
While Lucy’s charge, Percivale, finished towards the tail of the field, Emma’s Thunder Road caused a boilover at $61 when, after being slowly away and settling towards the rear, he charged home down the extreme outside to claim victory.
It was a great achievement by Emma, who has only been training for four years and has just three horses in work.
Thunder Road was having his first start since February and was resuming on a track rated a Heavy 9.
“He’s not overly talented but he does go on a wet track and he tries. That’s half the battle,” said the trainer. It was her first metropolitan winner.
Augustus tremendous
In the final event on the card at Randwick, a 1000-metre Benchmark 78, victory went to Arise Augustus, trained at Toncurry by Terry Evans and ridden by Lester Grace.
As was the case with Thunder Road, Arise Augustus was slowly away and at the tail of the field before coming down the extreme outside to win drawing away.
The five-year-old gelding has built a reputation as an “iron horse” with Saturday’s race his 25th start in a campaign that has lasted 15 months.
In winning, Arise Augustus took his record to eight wins from 41 starts and his prizemoney to over $180,000, which represents a good return on investment, as Evans paid just $25,000 for the horse as a yearling.
“There are not many like him ... he’s a dream to train,” said Evans.
Max smart
Another horse building a well-deserved reputation as an “iron horse” is the Trevor Sutherland-trained three-year-old Gentleman Max.
When the gelding finished second in a Benchmark 55 at Wagga Wagga recently, it was the youngster’s 26th race start in his first preparation. His record currently stands at three wins and 12 placings.
Ryan claims Cup
Cessnock last week hosted its famous 1350-metre Jungle Juice Cup. Outsider Annandale Lass went straight to the lead and set a hectic pace which resulted in the short-priced favourite, Three Sheets, being left mid-field and wide.
On the turn Annandale Lass went wide, while the Greg Ryan-ridden Ultimate Chance hugged the rails and claimed what proved to be a winning break.
Three Sheets ran on late to claim second placing, while Annandale Lass fought on bravely for third.
“Ultimate Chance has become hard to place,” said winning trainer Scott Collings. “Cessnock is a nice tight course which suits him,” he added.
Following the win, the Goulburn-based Collings announced that he is about to form a training partnership with veteran Canberra mentor Keith Dryden.
“I’ve done a lot of breaking in for Keith and he has offered me the chance to go into a training partnership with him, so that’s what we’ll be doing. We will have stables in both Canberra and Goulburn,” he said.
Nice work, Sally
Grafton last Thursday featured the running of the 2215-metre Grafton Cup Prelude.
Rednav, trained at Coffs Harbour by Sally Taylor and ridden by Peter Graham, burst through along the rails to score by three lengths.
For Taylor who has only been training since February, it was win number five.
“I just love training. This is pretty exciting,” said the young trainer. Rednav is an automatic qualifier for the Grafton Cup.
Gold strikes
At Grafton on Sunday the Harold Norman-trained Gold Horizon, ridden by top Queensland jockey Tegan Harrison, just held out the fast-finishing Sofin to take out the 1610 metres South Grafton Cup.
Huge day for a picnic ...
Gosford CEO Daniel Lacy has announced  the club will hold a picnic race meeting on Melbourne Cup day this year.
“We think it’s a wonderful opportunity for local racing enthusiasts and patrons alike,” he said.