Ten-year-old mare Gwennybegg won her third feature Cup on the Victorian picnic circuit at Dederang last Saturday, almost three years after her second.
Trained at Cooma in NSW (118km south of Canberra and 130km north of the Victorian border) by Georgie Boucher, Gwennybegg has been a rock-solid performer for connections ever since her debut back in 2019.
The daughter of Shamus Award won a maiden for Luke Oliver in Victoria before moving north and winning twice for Barry Ratcliff until she found herself with Boucher in May 2021.
Gwennybegg completed a hat-trick taking out the $18,000 Tumut Mile in January 2022, and won another three in a row 14 months later, all in Victoria — at Hinnomunjie and then in the Healesville and Swifts Creek Cups.
Three more wins at Tumut, one at home and one at Adaminaby have kept the cheques coming in prior to Saturday, when Gwennybegg was given a lovely frontrunning ride by Dani Walker. The pair were not for catching, winning by a length and three-quarters from the Tyson Barton-trained Marine Parade and Ashleigh Smith’s Besson, who was racing for the first time since his Merton Cup placing more than seven weeks earlier.
Two for Taylor
Jockey Leigh Taylor is in good form and backed up a good day at Buchan the week before with riding honours at Dederang.
Taylor had six rides at Buchan for a win and five minor placings. He took five mounts at Dederang, coming away with a double, a second and two thirds.
He won the opening race for Ron Hockley on the Pride of Dubai maiden mare Mahra, who broke through at her 18th start, and the last race on talented sprinter Mighty Feat for Scott McIntosh, the nine-year-old Per Incanto gelding notching the eighth win of his career.
Leading rider Shaun Cooper also had a consistent afternoon, with three placings and a winner from his five rides.
He was successful on the National Defense (GB) mare Enough War for Geoff Brunsdon, winning over 1350m a fortnight after the trio combined for a 1608-metre win at Woolamai, where picnic racing returns this Saturday.