TAMWORTH Jockey Club racked up a double century of nominations to ramp up the “local” excitement for Sunday’s record-breaking Tamworth Cup meeting.
TJC general manager Kay Jeffrey couldn’t have been more surprised or delighted that local Tamworth trainers were so well represented on the day – and in the feature race, the $150,000 Mercure Tamworth Cup (1400m).
“We received 200 nominations on the nose,” Jeffrey said.
“51 of those are local horses, that’s Tamworth trained horses.
“So it’s a great response, fantastic, absolutely over the moon.”
She is delighted on a number of levels, firstly with the 200 nominations but more importantly by the number of local trainers and horses that will run in Sunday’s eight-race TAB Showcase meeting.
“And we have seven Tamworth horses in the 37 Cup nominations,” she said.
“Bullet Kid and Present Sense (Craig Martin), Crooked Blaze (Mel Dennett), Mighty Like (Zach Hatch), Suncraze (Mel O’Gorman), Try ‘N Run A Muck (Troy O’Neile) and Unbiased (Cody Morgan).
“Looking at the benchmark ratings, some of them look certain to get a run too.”
That’s the outstanding feature of the nomination list.
The 37-strong cup list is chock full of local and Hunter and North West Racing Association trained horses. The big city stables are absent with the likes of Damien Lane (Wyong) and Tim Martin (Mapmaker) heading the bigger stables.
Mapmaker was trained by Craig Martin in Tamworth before he and his owners sent the gelding to Craig’s brother, Tim, in Sydney.
“There are a lot of bread and butter stables represented in all the eight races,” Jeffrey said.
“That’s fantastic on such a big day with such good prizemoney.”
They will also race on a good surface as well.
“The staff have done a great job to have the track as good as it is. It looks a picture and the best in the HNWRA,” Jeffrey said.
TAMWORTH CUP NOMINATIONS (Benchmark ratings listed where available): After All That (Rod Northam) 74, Alliterate (Pat Farrell) 67, Belflyer (John Shelton) 93, Brazen (Brett Cavanough) 79, Bullet Kid (Craig Martin) 80, Choice Larga (Damien Lane) 71, Congelator (Paul Cartledge), Cornrow (Peter & Will Hulbert), Crooked Blaze (Mel Dennett) 82, Evangelist (Lea Selby) 76, Exilia Miss (Stirling Osland) 74, Exitozo (Scott Thompson) 74, Fuel (Wayne Wilkes) 73, Got Unders (Jay Hopkins) 91, Jesse ‘N’ James (Bryan Dixon), Kasharn (Dwayne Schmidt) 73, Kool Vinnie (Kris Lees) 74, Loud Enough (George Woodward) 76, Mapmaker (Tim Martin) 72, Miami Dade (Brett Cavanough) 73, Mighty Like (Zach Hatch) 95, Mishani Honcho (Shane Edmonds) 85, Most Exalted (Mack Griffith) 83, Niccobelle (Kristen Buchanan) 76, Plucky Girl (Toby Edmonds), Prada Miss (Stirling Osland) 71, Present Sense (Craig Martin) 77, Royal Tudor (Rod Ollerton) 89, Sheiswhatsheis (Tony Gollan), Sorority Sister (Garry Schwenke), Suncraze (Mel O’Gorman) 83, Tears In Heaven (Tracey Bartley) 71, Try “N’ Run A Muck (Troy O’Neile) 71, Unbiased (Cody Morgan) 78, Valbeata (Ron Milligan) 68, Vega De Lago (Geoff O’Brien) 69, Von Classic Hero (Jeremy Sylvester) 65.
