PACING
ANGELA Hedges was hoping for some tangled magic in her pacing performances over the next two nights.
Tonight the Eglinton-based trainer-driver is driving at Bathurst before heading back to Tamworth to take the reins behind Make Some Magic in tomorrow night’s $20,000 Pryde’s EasiFeed Golden Guitar Final (1980m).
She will also drive Strong Sapphire in tomorrow night’s $10,000 Pryde’s EasiFeed Tamworth City Cup (2360m).
She and partner Nathan Hurst also have a double chance in that main support race, with Regal Eagle drawing the outside of the front line at Tamworth.
Tonight she has three drives at Bathurst, partnering Bluechip Brave (Keith Colley Memorial) in the first race of the night, Tulhurst Vee Jay (R2 Norman & Garth Harkham Memorial) and Tangles in the final race of the night, the Let Us Remember 3YO Fillies Pace (1730m).
She thinks Tangles will run well.
Hedges also drew the short end of the work stick this week, heading back to Bathurst to trial some horses on Tuesday night and then drive at tonight’s Bathurst TAB meeting.
“Yeah, Nathan gets the holiday,” she laughed after Make Some Magic had roared into Golden Guitar contention with an impressive half head win in Sunday evening’s fourth heat.
“I get all the work, drive some trials and then the trots Wednesday night.”
Make Some Magic, she added “is a nice horse”.
“She’s been good value – won 13 races for us now.
“She ran in the Golden Guitar Final last year but didn’t do any good.
“She was three wide all the way.”
It wasn’t a good night for Hurst.
“We ran last and second last,” he said of the Golden Guitar Final.
“We’re hoping for a bit better luck this year.”
He said Hedges and Make Some Magic go well together while he will drive Tulhurst Courage, the winner of his last two, including Sunday’s fifth heat win when he showed a brilliant turn of foot to rush from the back to the front in the first 100m of the back straight.
“He’s got real good speed,” Hurst said.
“He’s getting stronger all the time.
“We bred him too. We had the mare as well.
“She won as a two-year-old but only had five starts – she was pretty handy though.”
He said all six Bathurst Golden Guitar qualifiers had been racing well “down home”.
This year Hurst has changed his Golden Guitar week.
Last year he flitted backwards and forwards between Bathurst and Tamworth.
This year he’s based himself with six of his string in
Tamworth.
“I’m staying at the Grimas again,” he said of Tamworth owners and trainer brothers Michael and Paul Grima.
“They’re outstanding – been a great help to us.
“Nothing is a worry to them.
“They can’t do enough for us. I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality.”