Wagga, Scone previews: Dress rehearsal for Gary Colvin’s Championship contender Cambar

Trainer Gary Colvin will edge one step closer to a potential second Country Championship Final win with the stable’s 2025 top seed Cambar favoured to take out the unofficial SDRA Heat dress rehearsal at Wagga on Monday.

Cambar wins a Highway Handicap at Rosehill Gardens in November last year. Picture: Bradley Photos

Trainer Gary Colvin will edge one step closer to a potential second Country Championship Final win with the stable’s 2025 top seed Cambar favoured to take out the unofficial SDRA Heat dress rehearsal at Wagga on Monday.

Cambar is $26 with TAB Fixed Odds to win the Final, which is set down for April 5 at Royal Randwick.

To get there, the son of Pierata will have to finish first or second in the SDRA Qualifier, scheduled for Saturday March 1 at his home track at Wagga.

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Monday’s Championship Preview (1200m) comes 51-days after Cambar suffered his first and so far only loss in his four starts in a TAB Highway taken out by Sir Remlap, who lines-up in Monday’s Championship Preview at Scone.

“The timing suits me because I was able to give him a couple of weeks off in the paddock,’’ Colvin said.

“With young horses, you get them up and keep them up for a while and they just need a bit of a break and he’s that and I’m pretty happy, he’s freshened right up.’’

Cambar’s unbeaten sequence to start his career came over 1000m (twice) and 1100m in his November 30 TAB Highway debut.

Cambar takes the TAB Highway in a total thriller, and remains unbeaten! 😮@aus_turf_club | @clarkyhkpic.twitter.com/CJGTKKGksn

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 30, 2024

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His only loss was over 1200m; if he wants to win the Championship, he will need to stretch himself out to 1400m.

“We were just a bit positive on him in the 1200m Highway,’’ Colvin said.

“We don’t need to be that positive with him because he really does settle in races.

“And he met a very hot field that day, don’t worry about that, and he acquitted himself well I thought.’’

Cambar couldn’t be more opposite to Colvin’s 2022 Country Championship Final winner, Another One, in the looks department, but they do share some important traits.

Chief among them, Colvin revealed, was desire.

“Another One wanted to be a racehorse and this one does too and I tell you what, that’s a big thing with a horse,’’ he said.

ANOTHER ONE gets redemption in the 2022 @NewhavenPark Country Championships! @aus_turf_clubpic.twitter.com/yGrcnU4QCJ

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 2, 2022

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Cambar doesn’t do much wrong according to Colvin but is subject to a major gear change on Monday nonetheless.

“We’ve got the blinkers on for the first time,’’ Colvin reported.

“He was doing a lot of ‘looking’ in that last race he ran in and when I put the blinkers on, in work, he really puts his head down.

“It was my old mate, Greg Hickman, who told me about Pierata and he said ‘mate, he’ll improve out sight when you put the blinkers on.’

“I think he has. We put them on a couple of times in work and he really wanted to motor.”

Cambar was one of 115 foals from the first crop of the aforementioned Hickman-trained All Aged Stakes winner, Pierata.

Colvin’s colt is a direct descendant of the 1944 model, Rough Shod, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential broodmares of both the 20th and 21st centuries, thanks in no small part to her fourth generation son, Sadler’s Wells.

Here’s what @clarkyhk made of Cambar’s win at Rosehill today.@aus_turf_clubpic.twitter.com/GMhswxsNo6

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 30, 2024

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Colvin meanwhile seems certain to add to his tally of Wagga winners, currently sitting at 220, via any number of up to a dozen Riverina runner-up on Monday.

The trainer is looking forward to the return of Southern Dancer in the Thank You Kooringal Rotary Class 1 Handicap (1300m).

A daughter of former crack two-year-old I Am Immortal, Southern Dancer balances that speed with the stamina of Melbourne Cup winner, Kingston Rule, close up on her dam-side.

“She’s a nice horse going forward,’’ Colvin says. “She’ll make a nice little 1600m, 2000m horse.

“I really like her. She’s fresh and she went well fresh last time.’’

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Brett Cavanough could know by the end of the week if he’ll have a runner, or maybe even two, in the Golden Slipper.

And the Kosciuszko-winning trainer will also know by the end of Monday if he’ll have one to cheer on in the Country Championships series.

Cavanough will play a pivotal role in the outcome of Monday’s aptly-named Championships Preview at his home track at Scone where his two runners include the wholly untapped Hellicbell.

A winner of four of her six starts and a daughter of Yarraman Park’s Group 1 winner and Group 1 sire Hellbent, Cavanough’s mare is no certainty to contest the Championships, but no certainty not to either.

.@HodderBelinda told you so.....🔒

Hellcibell wins the first from Tamworth!@[e-mail]/xfy7551gJc

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 26, 2024

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“We’d like to win a stakes-race with her,’’ Cavanough said. “Pretty similar to the Clear Thinking model, because they’re worth a lot of money as broodmares but gee whiz, if she was good enough to run a strong 1400m, $700,000 is a lot of money isn’t it?’’

It wasn’t exactly by design, but the stars are very much in alignment for ‘Cav’ and connections to pursue the Championships given Hellcibell hasn’t won more races than allowed.

That has everything to do with what happened subsequent to her fourth career win at Tamworth on Cup day (April 26, 2024).

“She got a bit of travel sickness coming home from Tamworth and we just gave her a good break,’’ Cavanough explained.

“She was always a big immature type and everything just lined-up to give her a really good spell through the spring and summer.

“She’s ready to go for a big autumn and winter campaign.”

Cavanough is likely to save Point Basse for a TAB Highway, leaving Outback Ringer to act as a partner, and rival, to Hellcibell in Monday’s ‘feature’.

“He’s got match-fitness,’’ Cavanough says.

“The theory is, let’s see if he can run a solid (1200m) with a big weight because then obviously he will be down in a weight a bit and he might run (1400m) with the light rider on him.’’

The 2025 H&NW Qualifier will be held at Tamworth on Sunday, March 9.

Both of Cavanough’s potential participants have won at the venue, in fact, Outback Ringer has won there twice.

Cavanough starts the week ‘at home’ but will be headed south-east to Sydney this Saturday with his crack juveniles Alabama Magic and Brat Summer pencilled in for the star-making Group 2 ATC Silver Slipper Stakes.

Originally published as Wagga, Scone previews: Dress rehearsal for Gary Colvin’s Championship contender Cambar