June 13, 2014
by Ross Stanley
This Saturday’s country racing spotlight falls on Kilcoy’s Cup and Ladies Day fixture.
Female participants are well catered for, and the rich $15,000 Ian and Di McAuley-Brisbane Livestock Bonus QTIS Maiden – an event for two-year-old fillies restricted to lady riders – tops the bill.
There are incentives in the form of a $500 Female Strapper Award, a $500 bonus for the Female Trainer of the Day and $500 cash for the top female jockey on the six race card.
The “blokes” are not forgotten either: the leading male rider will also receive $500.
The overall leaders of either gender in the jockey and trainer ranks will be presented with the Bruce Duncan Memorial Trophy and the Leopard Tree Lodge prize respectively.
South-Burnett stables with acceptors include Peter Blackwell, whose hitherto sprinter Shinzo Mashuranbo steps up to 2000m in the Golden Shores Rating 55 Handicap; Glen Richardson (Latarno and Miss You Johnny); and Barry Richardson (Crazy Ways).
Meanwhile, Kaylene Hamilton and Andrew Green have drawn emergency slots in the Beavis and Bartel MB 55 respectively, with Mini Style and A Rare Old Time.
Apprentice Hannah Philips, fresh from another winner at Gayndah last Saturday, has three engagements as she strives to salute for the third consecutive raceday.
The Kilcoy thoroughbred action will be interspersed with three contests for the mini-trotters.
Further afield, Norma King has Willywynya (a winner at Gayndah last weekend), Vain Dazzler, Like This and Flight Command entered at Goondiwindi.
Her apprentice son Joshua and the Gold Coast four kilogram claimer Quayde Krogh both have mounts at Charleville.
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Racing really is a ferris wheel.
Trainers can have horses in their yards that are sitting in the very highest, most splendid part of the ride while others are barely above the ground.
Although they have decided to bypass the program, both Tony Gollan and Natalie McCall – the conditioners that landed the Doomben 10,000 and Stradbroke with Spirit of Boom and River Lad – had a nomination for Kilcoy.
The other twist is that Shane Chataway has been regularly donating free services to his stallion Top Echelon as a supplement to various rural races.
With his son River Lad grabbing winter glory, the value of those gifts has escalated.
All three placegetters in Kilcoy’s juvenile fillies Maiden on Saturday will pick up one of these offerings.
River Lad has some connections with the bush.
Firstly, Natalie’s father Ray is a familiar figure around non-TAB tracks and secondly, the Group One winner produced by Canny Lad’s daughter Ikeymo started out with Mary Hassam at Bundaberg.
After a strong fourth in a juvenile Maiden at Caloundra, the bay managed to finish seventh in an all-age Eidsvold Maiden on 27 February 2010.
He then went to Frank Crick at the Sunhine Coast.
And at his next run a month later, he bounced back to take out a Caloundra Maiden for two-year-olds.
