Kelly Smith will look to win his hometown cup on Saturday, with last-start winner Ringside set to be one of the major players in the $14,000 Mungindi Cup (1400m).
Smith, who kicked off his career as a jockey in 1972, has been around the racing game ever since, and these days, the popular North West racing identity trains on his property at Collarenebri.
“I’m born and bred in Mungindi, but I’ve never had a starter in the Mungindi Cup, and it’s my life’s dream to win the race,” Smith said.
“These country fellas can dream about winning a Highway or whatever, but it’s my dream to win my hometown cup.
“The Collarenebri Cup is the first one I ever rode on a horse called Lunar Landing, and I’ve lived in Collarenebri ever since, but winning the Mungindi and Walgett Cups are right up there.”
Smith doesn’t venture to the picnics too often, but on Saturday, he trekked to Garah’s Talmoi Picnic Race Club, with Ringside winning the time-honoured Talmoi Picnic Cup 1400m).
The Collarenebri trainer went there confident his horse would run a good race but admitted it was just another run to have Ringside 100% right for Saturday’s Mungindi feature.
“Garah is only 45 minutes from Mungindi, and we all grew up and did Pony Club together, so it was more like a get-together, and I knew the run would definitely top him off for Mungindi,” Smith said,
Zara Lewis, who only recently returned to the picnics following a successful stint as a professional jockey, was in the saddle and led all the way on the Stratum gelding.
“I said to Zara, ‘Get him to the front, or they’ll all be hacking at his heels’, and she went straight to the front, and that was the end of it,” Smith said.
“When they came down the straight, he wobbled a little bit but must have hit a soft patch, and once he straightedge up again, there was no way they were going to beat him.”
Smith, who is good mates with Peter Sinclair, funnily enough, got in the way of the Moree trainer winning the Golden Triangle, with Fiocchi (Ricky Blewitt) finishing fourth to Ringside at Talmoi following wins in the 2023 Boolooroo and Mallawa Picnic Cups.
“I don’t race at the picnics, but it was my first luck in a picnic cup,” Smith said.
“I’ll probably take him back for the Golden Triangle next year.”
Smith will come up against Sinclair again on Saturday, with the Moree stable entering Ah Well and Expensive To Keep in the same race.
For Smith, his focus will be the Mungindi feature, and he will team up with jockey Billy Cray, who will jump aboard Ringside in the Mungindi Cup (1400m) and Loca in the 1200m Benchmark 50 Handicap.
It’s set to be a big day for the Mungindi Jockey Club, which will host a big crowd for the six-race non-TAB program.
There will be racing, fashions, and entertainment before the afterparty at the Jolly Swagman Hotel that night.
For more on the race day, click here.
For Mungidi’s nominations and races, click here.
