FNQ IN REVIEW: A look back at the year in racing
As the year draws to a close, the Cairns Post takes a stroll down memory lane to revisit the big moments from racing.
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As the year draws to a close, the Cairns Post takes a stroll down memory lane to revisit the big moments from racing.
A HORSE FOR THE AGES
The Harrovian will be remembered in the north for many years to come.
The star gelding crossed the line first in the Cairns Amateurs Cup of 2019 to score the first-ever Queensland Northern Crown Series bonus.
The six-year-old secured more than $460,000 while rewriting history over the northern carnival, winning the Cairns and Townsville Cups, as well as the Amateurs Cup.
Cairns Jockey Club president Tom Hedley, who owns The Harrovian, will send the horse for a long spell in the paddock before coming back to try to do it all again in 2020.
“I am happy to have the northern dreams, that is my world,” Hedley said.
“I am pretty happy to do it again next year.”
The leading north Queensland owner has been known to open the wallet wide to purchase quality horses in his career, but he revealed that for what he paid for The Harrovian, his three cup victories this year had gone well beyond his expectations.
A STAR OF THE FUTURE
Tablelands apprentice rider Rachel Shred was crowned the top jockey across the 2018/19 country association non-TAB premiership for the Far North.
The presentation for her season, which yielded 16 winners at the non-TAB tracks, was made in between races at Morrow Park earlier this year.
In her short riding career so far, Shred has been based in Mackay and Cairns but has since moved to the Tablelands to learn and work with the respected partnership of Janel and Ronnie Ryan.
The 21-year-old thanked the Ryans for their ongoing support when accepting her prize.
She won the premiership with 16 winners from 108 rides in the past season, one victory ahead of Cairns hoop Amanda Thomson.
Shred is away from riding right now with a wrist injury, but is expected to be back bigger and better again in 2020.
TYZONE’S BOOM
The Far North-owned Tyzone was runner-up in the Queensland Horse of the Year voting and was named 4YO and older Horse of the Year after a season highlighted by his Group 3 BRC Sprint success and second placing in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap.
He was coming off a successful last preparation that included three wins, including the Goldmarket Listed and Group 3 BRC Sprint before finishing with a second behind Trekking in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap.
He will again be targeting the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap in 2020.
MAREEBA ON THE WAY BACK
The Tablelands track has been a constant talking point within Far North racing circles over the past year, losing four meetings, due to a number of different reasons, including rainfall and the poor state of the track.
Racing Queensland inspected the track through 2019 and worked closely with the club’s committee as racing returned in September with the 2019 Mareeba Cup and Bracelet.
Many north Queensland trainers were left frustrated when the club’s June meeting was abandoned due to the track having several holes in it, which made the surface unsafe.
The club and track are on the way back, and hosted their biggest meeting of the season on Boxing Day despite some early rainfall.
THE JOCKEY BANS
The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission came down hard on misbehaving north Queensland jockeys, with several handed severe bans following inquiries late in the year.
Local trackwork rider Braydn Swaffer, a former race rider, was banned for seven months, Tablelands jockey Kerry Rockett was handed a 12-month ban, while Cairns apprentice Amanda Thomson was hit with four months.
Cairns apprentice jockey Michael Murphy also copped a month-long suspension after he pleaded guilty to a charge he knowingly attempted to deceive the clerk of scales by resting his fingers on the scales monitor to weigh out, in an attempt to make the allotted weight until being challenged by a steward to reweigh and was then found to be 3.5kg over his allotted weight.
CASS RETURNS
Former leading Cairns jockey Emily Cass received her final tick of approval from the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and made her return to the saddle at Cooktown.
Once the top apprentice in north Queensland, Cass was given a five-month suspension from race riding after testing positive to amphetamine and methamphetamine in late 2017, and had not ridden again before making a comeback in November. The 27-year-old has been riding track work for Cannon Park trainer Alwyn Bailey for much of this year and the local horseman has backed in the former prolific apprentice.
She jumped through all QRIC and Racing Queensland hoops, getting her weight down, riding in enough trials as well as passing drug and alcohol tests to get her official clearance to return.
She rode her first winner back in about two years at Atherton earlier this month.
Originally published as FNQ IN REVIEW: A look back at the year in racing