TAREE trainer Jim Delaney and his wife Cecilia may have missed out when their Tamworth Cup winner Universal Belief ran third to Tully Bolero in Tuesday’s Inverell Cup, but it was still worth making a first visit to Inverell.
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Their other big hope, Floral Insight, had no such trouble in the HG Munro Memorial/Booroomooka Inverell Shorts (1010m) in the race preceding the cup.
The five-year-old gelding started $1.80 favourite in a small field and Peter Graham rode him to a near two-length win.
“He’s a good little horse,” Delaney said.
“He’s got a good record.
“I’ve never been here before.”
The Delaneys bred the horse and have now won 10 races with him, including the last two after a victory at Port Macquarie before Christmas.
All of those wins have been over 1000m.
“I haven’t tried him any further yet,” Delaney said.
“I think he’ll go further though.”
The Delaneys made the trip to Inverell on Monday and were there for the cup calcutta.
Winning the Inverell Shorts was a nice return.
“We’ve had a wonderful time here already,” Cecilia Delaney said.
“This just tops it off.”
Cecilia Delaney also paid tribute to the jockey for a “fantastic ride”.
“He’s been with us for a while now,” she said.
“He’s all we could have wished for at the moment.”
The $30,000 cup didn’t go quite as well for the couple, who are also part owners of Universal Belief, but they were able to go home with a share of the $17,000 from the sprint.
The cup went to Armidale trainer Frank Tanner when Tully Bolero scored a popular victory down the outside.
That ride also completed a treble for apprentice jockey Courtney van der Werf, who was only employed for the cup when Jemma Wilson was ruled out through illness.
The young Kiwi hoop won the first of the day aboard Make Me Some (Kevin Dixon) and also the RL Moses Memorial Class 1 (1400m) with race favourite Hello I Love You for Coffs trainer Anthony Honess.
That mare was probably the easiest ride of the day.
It shot to the lead early in the race and never looked like
losing.
