Pitt Street, with jockey Andrew Gibbons hard at work, gets the better of Brave Ali (rails) to win the Walcha Cup yesterday. Third-placed Blinkin Easy is outside the winner. Photo: Rob Chappel 080213RCA11
PITT Street motored home to an Elders Walcha Cup (1440m) win yesterday that could have propelled him into a $35,000 Akubra Quirindi Cup (1600m) later this month.
The Kris Lees-trained gelding held on for a half head win from Brave Ali, with previous winner Blinkin Easy a nose away third.
Andrew Gibbons was a relieved jockey after partnering Pitt Street to what he thought was going to be a good win before just hanging on to beat the Tim Martin-trained Brave Ali.
“When he chimed in I thought he was going to win by three (lengths) but then he hit a brick wall,” Gibbons said.
“He travelled so well and it was just a matter of getting out.
“I had to go a little earlier than I wanted but you have to do that at Walcha.”
Gibbons was also relieved the photo finish went his way.
“I got beaten a fingernail in last year’s Cup,” he said of a transferred Cup to Armidale where Mt Rainier beat his mount, Olivia Grace.
Lees wasn’t able to attend his first Walcha Cup win but two of Pitt Street’s syndicate – Peter Ross (Port Macquarie) and Lindesay Allan (Curlewis) – were on hand to cheer home a five-year-old gelding who won his sixth race yesterday.
They had been organised in the syndicate by Joe O’Neill.
“He’s a good horse,” Allan said.
“And Joe’s a good judge.”
Ross, and wife Maree, said the February 22 Quirindi Cup “might” be his next race.
“We’ll see what Kris says.”
Earlier, Tamworth trainer Mark Mason celebrated the return to racing of Cascada when she won the $25,000 Graziers Class 2 Handicap (1000m) in easy fashion.
She had not started since winning an Armidale maiden on September 15 last year.
Greg Ryan rode the daughter of Lonhro and believes she has plenty more wins in her.
“There’s still a lot of improvement left in her,” he told Mason.