IT was third time lucky for Armidale trainer Lea Selby as she emulated her father’s success at Bundarra on Saturday.
Selby has had three attempts at winning the $8000 Booroomooka Angus Bundarra Cup and finally prevailed, with Rhodonite getting home by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
“He’s been a good old horse,” Selby said.
The nine-year old fell in the 2010 race and last year the race was abandoned.
“It was very good to win,” Selby said.
Especially as she joins her father Ike Brazel as a Bundarra Cup-winning trainer.
He won with Dynamite Dan about 25 years ago.
“I was a kid at the time. I was a stablehand,” Selby recalled.
On Saturday, Rhodonite jumped from the inside and straight to the front, and held off favourite All Again and Clear Knight.
“Having the blinkers off he could see where they were.
“He wouldn’t let them go past him,” Selby said.
“Courtney (apprentice Courtney Van Der Werf) rode him well.
“She just gave him a bit of a breather down the hill.”
She said he still had some run left in him when he finished and will give him a couple of weeks off now.
“He seems to like a bit of time between races,” Selby said.
“Now I’ll give him two or three weeks off.”
Selby almost made it a double delight, with Little Adia second to Gavin Groth’s The Early Bird in the final race of the day.
“It was a good run. She beat a lot of good horses from this area,” she said.
“She’s going to have a spell now.
“She’s been in for a long time.
“She’s a nice horse to handle and ride.
The win and second saw Selby take out the trainers’ challenge for the day, with Jacaranda coming in fourth.
Patrick Lo won the jockeys’ challenge after he won the first race on Cup day for Sue Grills aboard Vulcan’s Fury and then the fifth on the Peter Cleal-trained One Tin Soldier.
Groth’s The Early Bird backed up his Barraba win in fine style and wasn’t the only Barraba winner backing up either.
Steve Dixon’s Cowgirl’s Don’t Cry also followed up her Barraba victory with a neck win over Black Patch.
It was a welcome win for apprentice Sue Bigg, who has returned from a long injury layoff.
Hunter and North West Racing Association attention turns to Gunnedah’s Riverside Racecourse this weekend when the Gunnedah Jockey Club hosts its Manilla Cup meeting.
Gunnedah has a six-race TAB program with an $8000 Manilla Cup the main race.
Nominations for Saturday’s meeting close at11am today.