“He’s helped feed the family for the last few years,” she said of the seven-year-old gelding’s victory in the $12,500 Barraba & District Cattle Breeders’ 1400m Cup.

Resuming from a spell and ridden by jockey Melissa Brown, Sambora beat Jane Clement’s Jedak (Vad Bolozhinskhyi) by one length with the Mark Mason-trained and winner of the last two Cups, Emotional Outburst, (Jasen Watkins) three-quarters of a  length away in third.

“We purchased him as a yearling so he’s really part of the family,” Fox said. “He’s been tremendous to us.”

Fox had only two gallopers at Barraba and nearly landed the double when stablemate Splat (ridden by  Brown) was beaten on the line by the fast-finishing Key Lodge in the 1720m Class 1 Plate.

And it was an “excited” Allen Fox  who led Sambora back to scale after the cup.

His words “He’s back to his best - unstoppable” were “probably excitement” according to his training wife, who, as a former Victorian, hadn’t seen the Barraba track until Saturday.

“Allen rode two seconds in the cup there when he was jockeying years ago,” she said.

“We were confident he’d race well but not confident of the win.

“He was resuming, and there’s a bit of guesswork involved. 

“He’s basically trained here on the property but Mel knows him pretty well.

“He had a few set backs in his last prep through no fault of his. Six weeks ago he developed a virus, so we had to back off.

“He’s a confident horse and when he’s confident, we know, and he races well.

“He’s been a lot of fun, basically our family ATM.”

Nothing has been mapped out yet for the now winner of eight races.

“Possibly a 1600m somewhere,” Fox said. “We usually assess him after a race, then look to another one.

“Mel said he felt terrific going out onto the track. So hopefully he’s back.

“We nearly got away with the Glen Innes Cup (January)  but didn’t quite make it. So I told Mel this win makes up for that.”

 HNWRA attention turns to Scone this week, with the Scone Race Club conducting an eight-race TAB meeting on Friday.

The HNWRA premierships for last season will be presented at the meeting along with the inaugural Award for Services to racing.

Robert Thompson will be presented with that award after another outstanding season.

Luke Griffith (trainer), Greg Ryan (jockey) and Vad Bolozhinskyi (apprentice) will also receive premiership awards after their successes.

Nominations for next Monday’s Wine Country Race Club (Cessnock) TAB meeting close at 11am tomorrow and nominations for Tamworth Jockey Club’s Romantic Dream Plate TAB meeting close 11am on  Wednesday.

Tamworth races the Romantic Dream 2YO Plate (1000m) next Tuesday, the $17,000 juvenile race the highlight of the third Tuesday meeting in September for the club.