COUNTRY Championship runner-up Pera Pera has the chance to rebound from a disappointing race return at Grafton by winning tomorrow's$30,000 Bengalla Cup (1280m) at Muswellbrook's Skellatar Park.
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The lightly raced six-year-old gelding son of Street Sense, prepared at Mudgee by Mack Griffith, has drawn well in barrier two for the Cup with regular jockey Aaron Bullock on board.
Mack Griffith would like nothing better than to return to Muswellbrook, where he was stabled for a number of years, and win one of its feature races.
He was also bemused by the fact just eight horses accepted for the Cup from an original nomination list of 21.
"It has fallen away," Mack Griffith told The Leader Thursday.
"Be a nice race to win."
While he drew barrier two he wasn't that excited by the inside barrier.
"When it's wet it's not the place to be at Muswellbrook," he said of a number of years of past experiences.
"But he's fit and well.
"I don't know what happened at Grafton. He was back and wide all race. I just put it down to a bad day," he said of an eighth to Crooked Blaze in a 1200m sprint on Grafton Cup day.
Crooked Blaze and Pera Pera both carried 59kg that day but Crooked Blaze drops to 57.5kg and Pera Pera to 57kg for tomorrow's Bengalla Cup.
Griffith was also hoping to be at Coffs Harbour Thursday where he had Binalong Road, a talented galloper with owners in Tamworth and Boggabri, was to have run in the Coffs Harbour Cup.
However torrential rain on Wednesday wiped out the two-day Coffs Harbour Cup.
"It's a shame for them," Mack Griffith said of the Coffs club.
"But they will re-run it on December 9."
* Muswellbrook Race Club also has a Muswellbrook Junior Rugby League day on Sunday. It's been a big week for the town with the race club awarded the TAB Race Club of the Year and the Muswellbrook Rugby League Club among the nominees for the CRL Club Of The Year.
