It is unusual to say the least to head to a cup meeting in the north west of the state and not find Grafton rider Jodi Worley plying her trade from the jockeys room.
Whilst her home track at Grafton is her most successful track winners wise, Inverell Armidale and Moree fill the placings and there also plenty of winners at Glen Innes and Deepwater which both race only once a year.
But the absence was not caused through a lack of offers simply that Jodi made the call to head north rather than west and that decision proved spot on.
Murwillumbah was the track of choice to maintain her association with the Daniel Want trained Don’t Cry Mama.
In an industry where we now see both trainers changing riders and riders changing horses on a very regular basis to see a combination stick like Jodi, Dan and Don’t Cry Mama is to put it mildly rare.
Jodi has now partnered Don’t Cry Mama at his last seventeen race starts spread across three preparations and you can throw in another couple of barrier trials as well just for good measure.
The combination have proven to be happy with each other with Don’t Cry Mama winning on three occasions in that seventeen start run including at Murwillumbah on Saturday in a BM 50 1100m.
On Saturday Don’t Cry Mama settled midfield and looked to be under pressure coming to the turn but over the final 100m raced away to win with some authority.
HOOFNOTE; The decision by Jodi to head north was also a benefit for Kasie Stanley who picked up a couple of rides on Deepwater cup day from stables that would normally use the services of Jodi with pleasing results riding a winning double.
