Mudgee preview: Exciting gelding Nomorenightshift takes his next step towards the 2025 Country Championships

Four-time Country Championship Heat winning trainer Mack Griffith may have a contender for number five should the exciting Nomorenightshift keep progressing.

The unbeaten Nomorenightshift is chasing a hat-trick when he resumes at Mudgee. Picture: Bradley Photos

Regular Country Championships participant Mack Griffith’s 2025 candidate Nomorenightshift’s presence at Mudgee gives the Cup Day undercard a must-see Class 3.

Unbeaten and untapped, the son of the 2009 Golden Rose winner Denman, Nomorenightshift has been nothing short of barnstorming in both his winter wins at Dubbo and Gunnedah.

“He is a horse on the up,” Griffith said.

“He has got plenty of talent, he just doesn’t really know what it’s all about as yet. He does so much wrong.

“When he has a few more starts under his belt and he knows exactly what racing is all about, he is going to be a very exciting horse.”

Nomorenightshift’s wins were at 1100m and 1250m but everything about his pedigree and pattern suggest he will get further.

Nomorenightshift gets a late run up the inside to win Race 3 at Dubbo securing his first win! pic.twitter.com/cdPjC9EeCv

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 30, 2024

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“He is the sort of horse that the last part of his races and his trials is always the best,” Griffith said.

“He really attacks the line so we don’t really know what his ideal distance is, I think 1400m won’t be a problem for him at all down the track.”

Given Griffith’s forecast, the door is open for a potential Country Championships campaign in the early part of the New Year.

“If the timing was right,” Griffith said.

“He has definitely got just as much ability as a lot of the horses in our area.

“I have won the heat four times and none of them had as much untapped potential in the early days as this fellow has.

“If he doesn’t make it this year he won’t make it next year because he would have won his five races by this time next year; I’m pretty sure of that.”

Nomorenightshift is the third foal of a mare who is fast becoming a broodmare gem. Her name is Nosey Tycoon.

Her first foal is the Country Championships Qualifier Tags, her second is the Zarizatycoon, a winner of his first two starts in dazzling style.

Stratified wins well for Mack Griffith in the fifth at Warren! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/pcCRDrCgYt

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 10, 2024

Griffith has a grand chance of book-ending the Mudgee Cup meeting with Kuroshinzo in the opener and Stratified in the final event.

Kuroshinzo, a $13,000 digital purchase in June, contests the St Aime Country Boosted Maiden Showcase Plate over 1200m after three consecutive 1400m assignments.

“He’s had a little freshen-up and we think with the speed on he might attack the line a bit more,” Compelling Truth’s trainer said.

“He just has been left wanting in front so we just want to try and time the run a bit better with Aaron (Bullock) on the board, he’s the best man for the job to do that.

“Kuroshinzo is pretty consistent.

“When we bought him, we knew he wasn’t going to be a superstar, but he has well and truly paid for himself already.”

Stratified, meanwhile, will have plenty of admirers when he leads the field out in the Craigmoor Country Magic Benchmark 58 Handicap (1200m).

“He is pretty one dimensional,” Griffith said. “He jumps out and goes forward.

“He is back in grade a lot on Friday but he is definitely up a fair bit in weight.

“Young Mitch (Stapleford) is riding well so that’s a big plus with weight off his back.”

STEWART HOPING FOR A DREAM START TO HIS TRAINING CAREER

Nash Rawiller’s tally of rides will tick over to 15,973 when he is legged aboard Scopics on the Kensington by a trainer having his first ever runner.

His name is Angus Stewart.

Three days shy of his 21st birthday, this is a day Stewart will never forget - win, lose or draw.

While Stewart would rank as one of the youngest trainers to send one around at the home of Sydney racing, he has done his ‘time’, most of that served under the renowned Central West trainer Dean Mirfin.

“I’ve been brought up in Bathurst and I started working for Dean when I was 14,” Stewart said.

“I worked as a stablehand, then a trackwork rider, I progressed to a foreman then training assistant and now I’ve got my own trainer’s license.

A solid win from Scopics at Orange, who remains unbeaten from two starts.

Mitchell Bell puts a double on the board. pic.twitter.com/NAYH90FhXd

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) December 30, 2022

“Dean has been a great mentor the whole way along from day dot.”

Stewart couldn’t wish for a more fitting first winner, if it happens this week, than Scopics given the horse’s own long history with Team Mirfin.

“Dean and I bought Scopics as a weanling and put him in the paddock and raised him. We had him broken in and he won his first two starts,” Stewart explained.

“The whole time since I was 17 and started my TAFE course to becoming a trainer, it was always the plan that when I got my trainer’s licence, I would take over the training of Scopics.

“Dean’s been very good to me in that way, Scopics has been a good horse for Dean and I would have understood if he wanted to keep him.

“So he has been very generous in letting me take Scopics on and I have got a very nice horse in my stable that looks to be a metro and provincial quality horse which are very hard to get just starting off.”

Even at age 20, Stewart has been around racing long enough to know what it means to have a runner in town, not to mention to leg up a jockey of Nash Rawiller’s stature.

“I am absolutely stoked to have Nash Rawiller on my first ever runner,” Stewart said.

Now that Stewart has taken on the life of a trainer, he will quickly learn about the miles they cover each week.

He will make the 400km round trip from Bathurst to Sydney then backs up on Saturday with his second runner at Cowra in a non-tab event.