AN IMPORTED Irish-bred stayer which won two races in France, a Rosehill-trained galloper which is a consistent placegetter in city Saturday company and a locally-owned four-year-old that won three of his only four starts are among the 25 nominations for this Tuesday’s $60,000 Mt Arthur Coal Muswellbrook Cup (1500m).
Nominations also include the South Muswellbrook Cup winner Clickety Snip and the placegetters Prior Baron and Double Halo, Double Five – which has a new lease on life and won his last three starts – and the multiple city winner General’s Sniper.
The imported galloper is the Kim Waugh-trained Sheniyan, which has had two starts since being brought from France, finishing unplaced both times on the Kensington track and at Canterbury.
However they were over 1400 metres and 1550 metres while the five-year-old, by Sadler’s Wells, won twice in France over 2000 and 2380 metres.
Waugh is taking this path to let the horse settle in and acclimatise and gradually build him up in distance.
Rosehill trainer Gerald Ryan, who has a adopted a policy of targeting country feature races, has nominated Planetarium, which might have only won two races from 22 starts but has been placed in Sydney Saturday company on four occasions.
Although his best form is over more ground, Planetarium resumed with a sixth to Snitsky over 1400 metres at Randwick on October 20, beaten only 2.7 lengths, after running into trouble at the top of the straight.
The Garry Frazer-trained Browden is an interesting nomination.
The four-year-old is owned by Invermien Stud’s Greg White and in four starts has won three races at Orange (twice) and Goulburn before beating city winner Scouting Wide in a recent trial at Hawkesbury.
Tamworth trainer Sue Grills’ grand old sprinter Ollie Vollie, up and coming sprinter Floral Insight and the highly-talented three-year-old Texan Lad are among the 12 nominations for the $17,000 Subzero Group Skellatar Sprint (1000m) on cup day.
Muswellbrook received 140 nominations for cup day and 137 for the first day of the two- day carnival on Monday.
The feature on the first day is the $17,000 Mangoola Coal Gyarran Benchmark 70 (1280m) for which last-start Eagle Farm winner Preparation and last-start Canterbury winner Tree Fern, both trained by Grills, have been nominated.
MT ARTHUR COAL MUSWELLBROOK CUP NOMS (with ratings)
Admiral’s Cup 69 (Kris Lees), Beaveroo 71 (Steven Schofield), Browden 61 (Garry Frazer), Clickety Snip 75 (Greg Bennett), Deal For Real 59 (Louise Munce), Double Five 67 (Tom Ollerton), Double Halo 74 (Luke Griffith), Emotional Outburst 73 (Mark Mason), General’s Sniper 82 (Tracey Bartley), Jimmy Fortunes 81 (Michael Clout), Kinetics 75 (Graham Payne), Kwilas Law 64 (Luke Griffith), Letchworth (Neil Godbolt), Lucarno 66 (Kim Waugh), Murray’s Sun 82 (Bridget Jones), Oh My Papa 72 (Greg Bennett), Okane 72 (Rod Northam), Phil A Mint 56 (Rod Ollerton), Planetarium 69 (Gerald Ryan), Prior Baron 74 (Rod Northam), Rembetica 57 (Dianne Lumsden), Savage Blaze 64 (Darren Smith), Sheniyan, 68 (Kim Waugh), Vigneron (Michael Mulholland), Zarbu 66 (Dianne
Lumsden).