Bathurst, Moruya previews: Prolific riders in the hot seat for Monday success

Nikki Hodgson will travel from the Central Coast to the Central West on Monday chasing a double at her first visit to Bathurst as a trainer.

Crusader Razor is chasing another win at Bathurst on Monday. Photo: Bradley Photos.

WYONG trainer Nikki Hodgson will make her first visit to Bathurst as a trainer on Monday but has no need to worry given the jockeys assigned to her pair have ridden there 1305 times between them.

For the record, Crusader Razor’s rider Grant Buckley accounts for 1122 of that whopping total while the rest go to former Champion Sydney Apprentice, Winona Costin.

“I actually grew up in Coonamble so I have been to Bathurst a bit when we were out that way,’’ Hodgson said.

“My Dad (Phillip) trained and so did my Uncle (Cecil). I haven’t been there for a long time but when I was kid, I went there a few times.”

Hodgson’s first runner at Bathurst will be the blue-blood gelding Island Legend who resumes in the Memberships Now Due Benchmark 66 Handicap (1100m).

“He’s got a good fresh record, ‘’ Hodgson said.

“But he’s drawn a bit of an awkward gate, that’s the only thing I guess, but he has got good enough gate speed to hopefully be able to overcome that.

“He has had one trial, the same as last preparation, when he ran second at Quirindi first-up.”

Winona Costin teams up with Island Legend on Monday. Photo: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images.

Island Legend’s trial was on the Beaumont track at Newcastle on July 9 when steered to an impressive win by the aforementioned Winona Costin.

“Winona has ridden Island Legend a few times before,’’ Hodgson said. “She won his maiden on him at Orange, but this is the first time she has ridden him since I’ve had him.

“I told her what the plan was when she got off him (after the trial) and she said that (this) would be a good race for him.

“We needed to go somewhere where the track is reasonably dry because he doesn’t really handle wet tracks.

“He’s been to Bathurst before I had him and he ran second for Wanda Ings.”

Ings and Hodgson are among the five trainers to have housed the son of Capitalist who was bought by The Everest winning owner Bon Ho for $280,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2020.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Island Legend is grandson of Absolut Glam who won the Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara and a nose second in the Manikato Stakes in consecutive starts in 2008.

Island Legend is out of a Redoute’s Choice mare as is his Bathurst-bound stablemate Crusader Razor.

Redoute’s Choice mares are credited with 175 stakes-winners, 27 Group 1 winners among them, including the likes of Anamoe, Artorius as well as the Australian Derby winners Hitotsu and Levendi as well as Victoria Derby hero, Ace High.

Crusader Razor is in fact a close relative of the aforementioned Australian Horse of the Year, Anamoe, given Crusader Razor’s dam and Anamoe’s dam are three-quarter-sisters.

“Crusader Razor is a nice horse,’’ Hodgson said. “He is a trier and is pretty genuine.

“He’s had the four runs for me, and same thing as Island Legend, I don’t think Crusader Razor handles the wet tracks.

“His two runs on the dry, he obviously won at Gunnedah and ran third at Kembla but then his other two runs where he has finished out of the money have both been on wet tracks.”

Grant Buckley partners Crusader Razor on Monday. Picture: Bradley Photos.

Crusader Razor, formerly trained by Chris Waller, would only have to repeat his June 21 third at Kembla to trouble his rivals in Monday’s Inland Digital Class 1 Handicap (1400m) and deliver Buckley his 145th win at Bathurst.

“They went slow and sprinted home the last 600m which makes it hard to make up ground but he kept coming the whole race,’’ Hodgson says.

“There’ll be a lot better speed on in that race out there on Monday which will suit him and he’s drawn perfect.”

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

PAUL Murray is giving himself three red-hot chances to bring up his 250th winner as a trainer at the same venue as he led in his first, 20 years ago at Moruya on the New South Wales South-Coast.

A son of legendary industry figure Bede Murray, (Paul) Murray’s 249th winner came at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday when Harry’s Bar ran her rivals off their legs to win the Midway on the Winter Challenge undercard.

It was the daughter of Harry Angel’s second Sydney-metropolitan win inside 10 starts with Murray eager to boost her tally and value this preparation.

“There is a Saturday race at Rosehill again in the middle of August over 1400m or a Wednesday 1300m on the Kenso,’’ Murray says.

“I don’t know yet but I might give her a crack at the (Group 3) Mona Lisa (at Wyong in September).”

Murray’s first opportunity to reach the 250 on Monday rests with Kurrajong who wears the same silks as Country Championships Final winner Asgarda.

Gooloo Bucky lines up at Moruya on Monday. Photo: Bradley Photos.

Bred, born, raised and retained by Kooringal Stud, Kurrajong looks perfectly equipped for Monday’s mile mission, the same distance as his sire Prized Icon won a Fernhill Handicap and Champagne Stakes.

“He’s been a bit of a headache but it looks like he might be starting to put everything together,’’ Murray said.

Murray meanwhile has an understandable glowing opinion of the home-bred Gooloo Bucky who powered away from his 10 rivals to win a Moruya 1200m maiden 10-days ago.

“The wide barrier worries me a little bit but there is a little bit of speed inside him so if he can be sitting about third or fourth with cover, I think he will be very hard to beat again,” he said.

Gooloo Bucky hails from a family nurtured by the Murray family dating back to the Universal Prince glory-days of the early 2000’s.

Gooloo Bucky’s third dam, Augusta Celebre was trained by Bede Murray and was the result of a match between 1997 French Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Peintre Celebre and the flying WA filly, Paklani.

Murray’s middle of his three Monday participants is stable acquisition Tigertude who tees off in the Moruya Golf Club Chinese restaurant Class 3 Handicap (1020m).

“Off his trial, it looks like he is going to run a very cheeky race,’’ Murray said.

Originally published as Bathurst, Moruya previews: Prolific riders in the hot seat for Monday success