Turf Club gears up for RSL Gympie Veterans Cup

They will be racing again at the Gympie Turf Club next weekend, but there is plenty of other country racing action happening elsewhere this weekend

Renae Nelson, Dean Blanckensee and Angelique Higgins at the Gympie Times Ladies Race Day - they will be racing again next Saturday at the Gympie Turf Club.

GYMPIE Turf Club will hold its RSL Gympie Veterans Cup race day next weekend.

Gates will open at 11am and there will be local racing from 1pm.

As per usual for this year, there will be a limited number of general entry and luncheon tickets, and all tickets must be purchased online prior to race day.

Work on re-roofing the stable blocks at the Gympie Racecourse is due to begin shortly. This work will cause some disruptions to horses stabled on-course and possibly to horses being worked each morning on the track.

Gympie Times Ladies Day race day - Georgie Harling, Jo Bennett and Maddy Gunn

Transition difficulties

The difficulty of transitioning from dirt or sand tracks to a quality grass track may be a problem for the country trained runners in the finals of the Stampede and Country Cups Challenge at Doomben on December 5.

Many of the qualifiers for the rich finals have been conducted on surfaces other then grass. Eidsvold and Kumbia Cups winner, Rather Salubrious, however, has qualified on grass tracks and showed with her good Ipswich mid-week third that she should be in the finish of the final.

Gympie’s Stampede qualifier, Hard Stride, won at Doomben earlier in his career and was 4th there in an Open recently. His 7 lengths Gympie win in the Jim Connolloy 1030m Memorial in record time with 66kg indicated his liking for sand as he has also raced very well on the sand at Roma.

The annual Mt Perry Cup race day will be held today

This once-a-year race day will feature the Mt Perry Cup a BM 55 race over 1400m with total prizemoney of $7450.

The Mt Perry card also features a 0 – 60 race over 1200m which is part of the Burnett to the Valley Points Series. This race is the third of the six Series Races making up the Burnett to the Valley Series.

There is a $3000 bonus to the owner of the most successful horse across the Series, $1500 for the most successful trainer and $500 bonus for the most successful jockey. Eidsvold and Kumbia have already staged Series races with Nanango on December 5, and the final race in the Series to be run at Esk on December 12.

Dalby trainer David Reynolds has Run Pam Run, who was 2nd to stablemate Rather Salubrious in both the Gayndah Cup (1400m BM 55) and Kumbia Cup (BM1400m) with Bundaberg trained Gambit the equal top-weight with Bundaberg Cup winner Elusive Element from the Kym Afford stable, on 60.5kg. Eleven were nominated for the Mt Perry Cup where maximum field size is 10 on the tight track.

The final field comprises eight runners in the Mt Perry Cup with Elusive Element to carry the number 1 saddle cloth. To be ridden by 2kg claimer Shannyn Stephan, Elusive Element will carry 57.5kg. Stablemate, Modern Family is also in the race with 57kg (H. Richardson) with the in-form Krystle Johnson trained Craiglea Arion and Bob Murray’s My Certain also runners.

Apprentice Louise Dillon received a seven-day suspension at Kumbia on Melbourne Cup Day for excessive whip use. Stewards found that she had used the whip on her mount, Miss Ready Now, 10 times prior to the 100m mark, five more than permitted. Jockey B. Moffat was also reprimanded over whip use (6 times before the 100m) on Manias in the Cup.

- Turf Topics by Barry Fitzhenry

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