SUE Grills has won two Inverell Cups and the Tamworth trainer could be headed for a third in today’s $30,000 Fencing North West Inverell Cup (1400m) although nominating her winner might be a little difficult as she has two good hopes – Monashee Woods and Keep It Danish.
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Horse to beat is the Grant Prosser-trained Clunes Rocket, who was a $2.80 Cup favourite last night.
Monashee Woods is a $5.50 second favourite while Keep It Danish shares third favourite billing with Armidale Cup winner Dusty’s Felt at $6.50.
The rest of the field is double figure odds in a wide open race.
Nominating a winner between Monashee Woods and Keep It Danish isn’t easy for Grills, who won the 1999 Cup with Double The Ton and the 2012 edition with Usain Prince.
“Both will start and both will run well,” she said yesterday.
“It’s a tough race.
“Monashee Woods is weighted up to his best but he’s always been badly weighted.
“He will race well though.
“The track being soft will suit him too.
“But Keep It Danish isn’t out of it either.
“She ran a nice race at Scone.”
Keep It Danish finished 2.8 lengths astern of stablemate Monashee Woods in the 1300m Christmas Cup at Scone on December 12.
She was finishing off nicely and is chasing her eighth career win at start number 30 today.
A six-year-old bay mare, she was bred by the late Theo Hill, who raced her with good friend Sel Brown.
Unfortunately, Hill passed away on Boxing Day.
“Theo had a number of horses with me over the years,” Grills said.
“Keep It Danish was by far the best horse he had with me.
“But he had a lot of good horses over the years and was a great client for me.”
Darren Jones will ride Keep It Danish today and they will jump from barrier 11 with Sophie Young, the stable apprentice, reuniting with Monashee Woods to jump from barrier seven.
Young won the Moree Cup aboard Monashee Woods back in September and was also on board for the Christmas Cup win at Scone at the seven-year-old old gelding’s latest outing.
The gelding son of Monashee Mountain has won eight of his 34 starts.
