With the dreaded rain once again hammering down on Coffs Harbour the Newhaven Park Country Championships NRRA qualifier was moved to Grafton on Saturday.
It was a great race and in the end the Murwillumbah trained Far Too Easy steamed through to the final with a very strong win considering he was caught wide for much of the race.
Ballina’s Stephen Lee secured the other NRRA spot when Zoukina showed plenty of heart to grab second.
The Coffs Harbour Brett Dodson prepared Parksville was a close up third and is now likely to head to Scone for the Wild Card to try and win his way into the CC Final.
Grafton which less than a week ago looked likely to have up to four runners in the qualifier ended up with just a sole entry Franklin Corners which ran tenth after a tough run.
The Andy Parramore duo of Andy and Canexcell both headed to Doomben, with the Dwayne Schmidt prepared Alf’s Magic having a day off after drawing the car park at Doomben in a 1200m 3yo race.
With the CC done and dusted for the NRRA for another year it is time to focus on how the locals went during the support program.
As mentioned often in these articles the online system of buying bloodstock continues to supply winner after winner and Saturday was no exception.
Race one of the afternoon saw Greg Howells saddle up stable newcomer Roaring Thunder in the Maiden 1006m.
Ridden by Matt McGuren Roaring Thunder settled well back in the field and was only in front of the cap catchers as heads were turned for home. Once in the straight McGuren angled his way into the clear and from the 200m Roaring Thunder worked to the line strongly to win well.
Roaring Thunder is a graduate of the 2020 Magic Million sales where he fetched a healthy $220K but after only one start for the Mick Price yard Howells secured him on an online auction for a fraction of that price and Saturdays race proved just what a bargain he is.
Roaring Thunder joins an impressive list of horses selected by Howells online that have come up trumps for their new connections including Ultimate Man, Real Gent and Kid Galahad all of which have won multiple races for the yard.
Speaking of finding an online bargain Grafton’s Terry Commerford is a dab hand at it himself. Like Howells Commerford selected Ambridge via online auction from the Aquis organisation.
It is fair to say Ambridge has been a bit of trick from almost day one but is seems Commerford, trackwork rider Caitlyn Smith and jockey Brooke Stower now seem to have the tricky gelding worked out.
On Saturday in the Class 2 1610m Stower came out running on Ambridge to find the lead and the fence but was then happy to take a sit just off the pace when the tempo went on mid race.
As heads were turned for home Stower waited and took the run right up the inside fence and Ambridge did the rest.
It seems fitting that Ambridge is now winning under Stower as he was the horse that gave her an injury enforced twelve month break from racing with some of his prerace antics.
