BLINKIN Easy will carry just half a kilo more in Saturday’s $14,000 BEST Employment Glen Innes Cup (1400m) than when he won it as an an up and coming four-year-old in 2009 .
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The Ruth Cooper-trained son of Easy Rocking had 54kg when he won the Cup four years when he scored his sixth race win.
Four years on and he has won 14 of his 88 starts for Tamworth owner Errol French and four years ago he was coming off a good fourth to Geigeron in the 2009 Inverell Cup.
Two weeks ago he was a 3.3len second to Tully Bolero in the 2013 Inverell Cup.
Four years ago, Blinkin Easy also followed his Glen Innes Cup win with a close (nose) second to Next Adventure in an Armidale 1300m and then won the 1440m Walcha Cup.
That he might do the same thing again is something his Moonbi trainer is hoping might reoccur.
While he is in good form, his weight is slightly up and the quality of the Glen Innes Cup is definitely up with the likes of Tamworth Cup winner Universal Belief (61kg), Imeldamay (54.5kg), Lotseventy (56.5kg) and Haslington (56.5kg) nominated.
Universal Belief was a gallant third in the Inverell Cup with 60kg.
Blinkin Easy carried 54kg at Inverell, where he was ridden by Matthew Bennett, but stable apprentice Melissa Brown could be back on board Saturday.
Glen Innes Jockey Club officials are predicting a big crowd and good racing given the fact they received a huge 136-nomination list on Monday.
Former long-serving Glen Innes secretary Noel Slade reckons the club deserves success.
He said they had worked hard.
“The Cup meeting looks fairly strong.
“It’s getting back to like it was in the old days.
“And Deepwater looks like being a good meeting next week too since they’ve increased their prizemoney.”
Slade was secretary at Glen Innes for 23 years and mourned the loss of another club official, John Sinclair (Quirindi) .
“We were secretaries at the same time,” he said.
“He was an outstanding administrator.”
In Slade’s day, Glen Innes raced 13 times a year.
“We used to have 79 horses in work here at one stage and had something like 14 to 15 trainers.
“Now we have just one trainer, Danny Armstrong, and I think he might have just two horses in work.
“It’s been a big change.
“Inverell used to have 22 meetings a year too and I think they are back to four or five now.”
While Slade doesn’t have much input into the Glen Innes club now, he still takes an interest.
“And I’ve been doing the sports show on 2NZ with Greg Kachel and Brian Baldwin for 40 years every Saturday morning. We talk about anything and everything on racing.”
GLEN INNES CUP WEIGHTS
Saturday, January 12
Universal Belief (Jim Delaney) 61, Haslington (Danny Bowen) 56.5, (Lotseventy) Luke Griffith 56.5, Rhodonite (Lea Selby) 55, Blinkin Easy (Ruth Cooper) 54.5, Imeldamay (Sue Grills) 54.5, Be Unique (Julie Hodder) 54, Cabriole (Robert Knight) 54, Eastline (Danny Bowen) 54, Gypsy Gaze (Mark Mason) 54, Heistmaster (Lesley Jeffriess) 54, Incitement (Debbie Trembath) 54, Joppick (Peter Sinclair) 54, Jurassic Star (Michelle Fleming) 54, Let’s Command (Joanna Methven) 54, Miss Sanctity (Todd Payne) 54, Omega Supreme (Adam Vine) 54, Pipers Point (Barry Strong) 54, Rivazar (Tom Higgins) 54, Rugged Ranges (Robina Todd) 54, Seen Im (Sandra McCormack) 54, Sir Rossa (Joseph Craig) 54, Steel Fixer (Gavin Groth) 54, Studio Star (Sue Grills) 54, You Owe Us (Michael Gallagher) 54.
