TAMWORTH galloper Sambora will be chasing a unique double for trainer Karen Fox when he takes on rivals in today’s $11,000 Wilshire & Co (CRT)/Jack Lynch Memorial 2016 Deepwater Cup (1400m).
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Last year’s Barraba Cup victory gave the eight-year-old his second successive feature there.
Today he’ll be chasing his second Deepwater Cup after taking out that event by a length from Armidale-trained Rhodonite last year.
And if previous form patterns are a key to Sambora’s chances today, he could be spot on for the money.
Sambora, owned and raced by Fox and her husband, former jockey Allen Fox, races well fresh.
“He’s getting a bit long in the tooth for long distance races, so we’ve had to re-invent him as a sprinter,” Fox said.
When taking out the 2014 Barraba Cup, Sambora resumed from a 20-week spell to grab victory, then last year a similar story, he was freshened up from a month off.
Last year’s Deepwater Cup was his second run back from a spell, having run last in the Glen Innes Cup the previous start.
Today he’ll be second up after resuming with a near-tailender in a Gilgandra 1300m BM 64 on January 3.
“He seems to do his best second up and that’s where he’ll be at on Saturday,” Fox said.
Also helping the gelding’s chances today will be regular jockey Melissa Brown who has ridden him to victory in all three previous cups.
“He hasn’t won in New South Wales without Melissa on him,” said Fox, who re-located to the north-west from Victoria with her family – and Sambora – some years ago.
“She seems to get the best out of him. She doesn’t need any instructions at all – she knows the horse that well.”
For Karen Fox, as administration manager at Tamworth Harness Racing Club office, January is her busiest time of the year which involves helping organise the annual Golden Guitar Carnival.
But she still finds time to prepare Sambora.
And she’s hoping the rain will stay away prior to the race – “he doesn’t like the heavy going too much”, she said.
Tamworth jockey Darren Jones, fresh from Thursday’s win at Muswellbrook with the Leon Davies-trained Bowie’s Babe, searches for more success at Deepwater today with five rides on the six-race card, including Sezwho for Inverell trainer Luke Berger in the Deepwater Cup.
Jones’s win at Muswellbrook propelled him to outright second on the HNWRA jockeys’ premiership, eight behind Greg Ryan.
Jones also leads the jockeys’ race for the Picone Family Summer Stars Bonus, a bonus seriees for jockeys, trainers and owners bonus initiated by the Inverell Jockey Club and staged at the smaller clubs at the northern end of the HNWRA.
Today’s Deepwater Cup meeting is the penultimate stage of the series with the January 31 Bingara Cup meeting wrapping it up.
PICONE FAMILY SUMMER STARS BONUS LEADERBOARD
JOCKEYS: Darren Jones 79, Jodi Worley 69, Vad Bolozhinskyi 50, Allan Chau 48, Sue Bigg 47, Rachael Murray 41. TRAINERS: Paddy Cunningham 55, Sue Grills 46, Jane Clement 37, Paul Grills 36, John McLachlan 32, Gavin Groth 30, Lea Selby 29, Peter Sinclair 29.
HORSES: Real Blonde 15, Carry Me Gee Gee 15, Beauzel 11, A Long Way 11, Blinkin Unreal 10, Aussie Fleet 10, Finishing Card 10, Red Koala 10, Gesundheit 9, Some Boy 9.
