Terry Croft loves trekking to Forbes, and over the years, the Hawkesbury trainer has enjoyed success at the Central Districts race track without winning the Forbes Cup.
On Sunday, he fired a three-prong attack in the $50,000 Forbes Cup, landing an elusive win when finishing first and third, with Clayton Gallagher sneaking through on Just A Brother ($21) to claim the feature on the program.
It was a clever ride by Gallagher, with the experienced hoop happy to take race midfield while Ronald Simpson ran the field along on the Clint Lundholm-trained Notabadidea ($31).
As the big field fanned wide, Gallagher cut all the corners, allowing Just A Brother to sneak up behind the pacesetters and take the lead before finishing strongly to beat the Matthew Dale-trained Ruban Bleu (Nick Heywood, $9) by a length while stablemate Royalzel (Ken Dunbar, $26) finished one-and-a-half lengths away in third.
Croft explained that his plan to win the Forbes Cup was put into action way back in March when Gallagher rode the six-year-old to a very good third placing in the Wellington Cup, which was won by the Rodney Northam-trained High Court.
“After Wellington,” Croft replied when asked when he had picked out this year’s Forbes Cup for Just A Brother.
“We thought he was a bit unlucky at Wellington; he got held up at a vital stage of the race, and his last 100 (metres) was enormous, so we gave him a freshen-up after that, and this was the race we were going for.”
The Albrecht gelding resumed from a nine-week let-up, finishing down the track in runs at Warwick Farm on June 12 at Rosehill Gardens on July 1.
A last-start seventh in the 1600m Benchmark 72 Handicap at Warwick Farm on July 19, where he was beaten just shy of six lengths, was enough for Croft to commit to his Forbes Cup plan.
“First-up and second-up, he was a bit plain, and third-up, Regan Bayliss gave him a big wrap and said he will win the Forbes Cup when he jumped off,” Croft said.
Croft admitted it was a dream to win the time-honoured Country Cup, with the victory booking Just A Brother’s place in the $3 million Big Dance to be run at Royal Randwick on November 7.
“This is what we sort of aim at, and this is one of our main plans; to win the cup,” Croft said.
‘We’ve done good, and the other one (Royalzel) has run third again today, and we’ve now qualified for the Big Dance.”
Gallagher committed to Just A Brother following their good run in the Wellington Cup, and Croft was happy to have the leading Western Districts and Central Districts jockey on board.
“He wanted to stick with the horse; he was offered other rides apparently, and he said, ‘I just want to ride this horse’,” Croft said.
On another big day at Forbes, the eight-race card didn’t fail to deliver.
In the second feature of the day, Matthew Dale went one better in The Amazing Ben Hall Bullet, with Blitzar (Louise Day, $4.60) a class above his rivals in the $30,000 1200m Open Handicap.
The Goulburn sprinter was given every chance by Day, with the pair finishing strongly to beat the Nat Jarvis-trained Kattegat (Billy, Owen, $4.40) by three-quarters of a length, while in third and one-and-half lengths back was the Brett Robb-trained Boom Boom Basil (Clayton Gallagher, $2.80).
For all results from Forbes, click here.
