The Jenny Graham trained She’s Invincible earned a tilt at the Country Championships after resuming to win the Dayne Molony-Todd Bates @ McGraths Benchmark 65 (1106m) at Port Macquarie on Monday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
She’s Invincible (Ben Looker) was having her first start since July and will have one more start before the $150,000 Mid North Coast qualifier at Taree on February 26.
“I wanted to see what she could do today before I decided on the next step,” Graham said.
“She can only afford to have one more start otherwise she will be ineligible so there has been a fair bit of planning go into her preparation.”
She’s Invincible may be one of at least three runners Graham hopes to have in the heat.
Miss Amajardan won a trial after the last race and is headed that way.
“There are one or two others I was also thinking about,” Graham said.
Tearaway tactics by local apprentice Jesse Graham allowed Laurentian to win the Schweppes Benchmark 54 (1006m) and give trainer John Sprague a race by race double.
“Great ride from Jesse,” Sprague said.
“He is one of those horses that you have to let go because if you try and hold him up he seems to choke down.”
Sprague and Raymond Spokes then joined forces to win the Wal (Dog) Badman Class Three (1506m) with Glitra to give five women from Laurieton and Bonny Hills and a two-and- a-half year-old baby girl yet another winner.
Spokes let Glitra settle mid field early before getting involved in a two-horse battle with the Neil Godbolt trained Forever Alone in the straight before Glitra won by a nose.
He was originally trained by Kris Lees, failed to win in eight starts, was put on the market and spied on the internet by Jan Tate.
She bought the horse, one of many winners she has raced with Sprague and made it a family affair by including her daughter Jenny Gray, her grand-daughters Jessie Ross and Lucy Gray, great grand-daughter Maddy Beauchamp and two and half year old great grand-daughter Poppy Ross.
“We call Poppy the silent partner,” Jan Gray said.
“I liked the look of the horse and that’s why I bought him.”
Since coming under Sprague’s care Glitra has won three races and run one second from four starts.
Lees had a winner earlier in the meeting when Siostra (Robert Thompson) led all the way to win the Nathan Owen @ McGrath Estate Agents Maiden (1206m) on debut.
Siostra is a full sister to the now retired Gold Epona which Lees also trained to win four races while she also ran second in the 2013 Group Three Tibbie at Newcastle.
Port Macquarie’s veteran trainer, Margaret De Gonneville, will not reveal her age but says she has a few years to go to catch up with two of New Zealand’s oldest trainers.
“My age is a state secret but there is a lady training in New Zealand who is 92 and another man who is 87,” she said.
De Goneville, originally from New Zealand, won the second division of the Balmoor Distributors Class One (1206m) with Gold Dancer, ridden by apprentice Jackson Murphy.
“She is only a little thing but was being asked to carry too much weight in many of her earlier races,” De Goneville said.
“Now that she is getting down in the weights she is showing what she can do.”