October 19, 2018
by Ross Stanley
As expected, the South Burnett Race Club’s card for Saturday has drawn plenty of hopefuls.
Candidates from Charleville, Miles, the Downs, Gympie, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Burnett will keep punters and bookmakers on their toes.
The widely travelled Bevan Johnson, with an eye on the two rural bonuses that are at play at present, has stable representatives engaged at Wondai, Stanthorpe and Blackall to follow on from his couple of mounts for Hannah Phillips at Mackay on Thursday.
His attempts to get among the placings in the Country Cup Challenge legs at Tara and Emerald landed wide of the mark.
The Miles’ horseman’s first crack at the Burnett to Beach Series kicks off in the Roy and Glenis Radunz Wondai Cup (1465m) with Fab’s Cowboy and Still The Same, the recent Clermont Cup winner for Phillips.
With the washout of Gayndah’s meeting last weekend, Eidsvold has hosted the only Burnett to Beach offering decided to date.
That round was won by the local galloper Walshie, the grandson of both Falvelon and Generalo Nediym that was saddled up by Bob Murray and handled by Cecily Eaton.
If Patche Gift, the runner-up from David Reynolds’ Dalby yard, goes one better in the Wondai edition, it will move to a handy lead with five points. Kelly Gates takes over from Leeanne McCoy, who was the last start pilot for the Dash For Cash gelding,
Mamzar, the minor placegetter at Eidsvold for the Cherie Vick-Robert Faehr combination, will run at Wondai in the shorter sprint, the Monica Ryan Trophy QTIS Class 2 Plate (1100m).
Melbourne Cup day is looming as a pivotal point in the Burnett To Beach contest.
Kumbia and Bundaberg are the venues. At day’s end on November 6, it will effectively be four down and three to play.
Nanango Race Club’s Benchmark 65 Handicap (1000m) will be the final roll of the dice for the aspirants on Sunday, December 2.
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Flowers On Two Fronts
Wondai’s fashion theme is Flowers and Fascinators …
Breeding buffs will be fascinated to look into the background of Schindler, a starter in the Monica Ryan Trophy. The lightly raced Snitzel six-year-old has joined his full brother Klammer as a lodger at Glenn Richardson’s Nanango set-up.
Both sons of the More Than Ready mare Morrengo were bred by Damion Flower, Snitzel’s original owner.
One of Schindler’s opponents on Saturday is his stablemate Avalanche Warning.
When it comes to The Everest, Flower has been covered in snow and not gold bullion.
In fact, Flower’s naming of his Redoute’s Choice colt, that he still part-owns, came from the horrendous car accident he survived during his teens. In the aftermath, one of his friends apparently said he looked like a snitzel. The term became his monicker and the name of the outstanding sire whose service fee is now not far below his original cost of $240,000.
Flower, a keen Everest slot-holder, waited late to finalise Clearly Innocent as his choice in 2017. The pick finished well back.
This time he jumped in early but to no avail. English went amiss and Viddora, her replacement, also failed to flatter.
Ironically, the Snitzel gelding Redzel saluted each time.
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It’s A Long Way From Tipperary
Although Saturday’s Caulfield Cup is a real poser, the Irish visitor The Cliffsofmoher, prepared by Irish maestro Aiden O’Brien, ticks several boxes.
His effort in last Saturday’s Caulfield Stakes (2000m) to fly home from last to fourth was more than eye-catching. Given that he was less than a length shy of Epsom Derby glory in 2017, the metric mile and a half is an appealing proposition.
This Cup seems to be his main target rather than the longer one at Flemington.
At Ascot in June, he was asked to race twice in three days, a rare occurrence on the English turf. He was placed at that second outing.
Although Red Verdon meets him better at the weights, the Galileo entire owned by the Lloyd Williams’s camp and Coolmore has at least shown he has acclimatised well.
Thirteen of the 20 acceptors were bred in the northern hemisphere.The three colonials are the Victoria Derby hero Ace High, the out-of-form Caulfield Guineas victor Mighty Boss and Youngstar, Kerrin McEvoy’s partner that was the 2018 Queensland Oaks sash wearer.
The High Chaparall filly followed up with a third berth against the lads in the Queensland Derby the following week. If it turns out to be wet, keep in mind that three of her four wins have been recorded on soft going.
Folk who only take an interest racing around Cups’ time will have heard of Red Cadeaux, the English tourist that picked up three seconds from his five tries at a Melbourne Cup.
The Caulfield Cup entrant Red Verdon races in the same colours as that fine warrior. The duo’s owner Ronald Arculli is a former chairman of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the organisation that is making it more difficult for its jockeys to compete at Australian carnivals.
Interestingly, Zac Purton, Hong Kong’s current champion hoop, will don the pale blue and red silk on a fly-in, fly-out mission.
Everything is set for an exciting day at Wondai on Saturday.
