Contested on a very well-prepared turf track on Saturday, the 2000-metre Cultiv8 Financials Grenfell Cup featured a typically patient and polished winning ride by top jockey Mathew Cahill.
Not long back from near career-ending injuries suffered in a race fall, Cowra-based Cahill rode nine-year-old gelding Would Be King in the Cup for Wagga Wagga trainer Doug Gorrel.
Iron Ruler attacked Jin Chi Phantom for the lead from the outset, with the tearaways establishing a ten lengths lead over Lunar Chara with another lengthy margin to the rest of the field.
Undaunted by the track record-breaking speed, Cahill brought Would Be King ($3.40) with a well-timed finishing run to win by over two lengths from the Sharon Jeffries, Parkes-trained pair Lunar Chara (Andrew Banks, $6.50) and a tenacious Jin Chi Phantom (Will Stanley, $6.50).
Trained at Canberra by Darryl Rolfe, Prior Thoughts ($3.50) was the first leg of a winning double for Mathew Cahill when coming from midfield to beat Biden (Richard Bensley, $4.60) and Mandalong Princess (Michael Heagney, $2.50 favourite) in the 1400 metres Bromar Engineering & Oliver’s Hardware Maiden Plate.
Wangaratta trainer Andrew Dale crossed the border from Victoria to combine with Canberra jockey Richard Bensley to land a winning treble at Grenfell, including Dangers in the 1400 metres Crutchers Developments-Loaded Dog Benchmark 58 Handicap.
This race was run as a Memorial to Michael (Slim) Nealon, who contributed a huge amount of voluntary work for the Grenfell Jockey Club and, along with Terry Carroll, was the instigator of the Grenfell Guineas, which was for several years the leading race for three-year-olds in country New South Wales.
Ridden by Richard Bensley, Dangers ($1.90 fav.) led most of the way to account for Our Blue Moon (Will Stanley, $13) and Golden Eclipse (Shayleigh Ingelse, $5).
The other Andrew Dale winners were Crimosa (Richard Bensley, $2.30) in the 1000 metres Mawhoods IGA Benchmark 58 Handicap and Deploy And Destroy (Richard Bensley, $2), which came from last in the 1200 metres O’Connor’s IH & Grenfell Commodities Class 2 Handicap.
Favourite backers were off to a good start when the Gary Nickson, Warwick Farm-trained Hez Golden (Michael Heagney, $1.70) led throughout to win the 1000 metres Lachlan Fertilizers Maiden Handicap from Sepearl (Will Stanley, $8) and Brandywine (Jess Del Fari, $10).
A highlight of the very successful Grenfell meeting was a presentation to Terry Carroll and his wife, Deidre Carroll, on their retirement from duties with the Grenfell Jockey Club.
In what must rank as some sort of record in New South Wales racing, Terry Carroll OAM, assisted by Deidre Carroll OAM, has served 47 years as Secretary of Grenfell Jockey Club.
Western and Central Districts Racing this week heads to Dubbo (Friday), Mudgee (Saturday) and Mungery Picnics (Sunday).
