Major spring country cup meetings moved to Port Macquarie on Friday, with Gai Waterhouse preparing her first success in the $200,000 feature over 2000 metres, when Rapido Chaparro and regular hoop Adam Hyeronimus led all the way to win.
By Coolmore Stud's celebrated but deceased sire High Chaparral, Rapido Chaparro was a $145,000 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale graduate from the Middlebrook Valley Lodge, Scone, draft.
Two of the five-year-old gelding's excited owners were trackside - Robert Cox from Melbourne and Chris Moorfoot from Darwin.
"This is one of my best moments in racing; I've never been here (to Port Macquarie) before, but now it is my favourite city," Chris said.
Former Godolphin galloper, Morton's Fork (a gelding by Cangon Stud Farm's Ad Valorem), and now in the Warwick Farm stables of Richard Litt, was second. Irish import Master Shuhood was third, while fourth was Lady Evelyn who won the Tuncurry Cup and Port Macquarie Cup Prelude at her previous starts.
The only active Danzig sire at stud in eastern Australia, Ad Valorem was also responsible for the second placegetter, Valbeata, who was runner-up to Magic Albert gelding Grimoire in the $70,000 Birdon Group Sprint. Grimoire is prepared by Jason Coyle at Warwick Farm, while Valbeata began at huge odds for Taree conditioners Bob and son Glenn Milligan.
The $50,000 Fastplast Building Supplies Hastings Cup - another feature on the program, was won by Drumbeats mare Miss Redoble. Trained at Wyong by Tracey Bartley, Miss Redoble is raced by brothers Robert, Mick and Dean Lanfranchi, their sister Cathy Handcock, with Kylie Steel and Matt Carr all from the Newcastle region. The Lanfranchis purchased Miss Redoble privately as a weanling from Mick O'Donnell's Fairhill Farm, Mulbring.
Good crowds attended the Young-Burrangong Picnics on Friday and Coonamble on Sunday.
Fresh from receiving the 2019 NSW Country Approved Rider Of The Year trophy at Racing NSW awards presentation, Maddison Wright partnered Georgian Court to take the Young Picnic Cup. Trained at Moruya by Natalie Jarvis, Georgian Court is by Johannesburg's brilliant Australian bred sprinter Turffontein who stands in Victoria.
The Randwick team of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott took their second country cup in three days, adding the Coonamble Cup to their cache when favourite Falcon Island (by former shuttler Harbour Watch) won The $75,000 Coonamble Cup convincingly on Sunday.
Shuttle sires strike early
The US bred More Than Ready, and Australian bred Choisir struck early with Sydney juvenile winners when Global Quest and Every Rose won the season's first black type two-year-old races the Breeders Plate-G3 and Gimcrack Stakes-G3, respectively.
A $340,000 Magic Millions January Yearling Sale graduate, Global Quest - produced from Fastnet Rock mare Global Dream - could find himself on the Aquis Farm stallion roster in the future, the Hong Kong owned operation being the colt's major owner.
Trained by Chris Waller, Global Quest is by Vinery Stud's evergreen sire More Than Ready who is serving his 19th shuttle season in the Upper Hunter Valley.
Every Rose was impressive when winning the fillies juvenile division and reminds breeders that her Danehill Dancer sire Choisir - a stalwart stallion at Coolmore Stud, Jerrys Plains - can produce early running gallopers.
Trained at Warwick Farm by Mark Newnham, Every Rose was a $160,000 Magic Millions Yearling Sale graduate.
While Coolmore's first crop juvenile horse Vancouver, has been represented with two early stakes placegetters (Postcode and Ticket To Ride), another of its first crop two-year-old sires Pride Of Dubai has also suddenly hit the headlines.
A dual Group 1 winning juvenile by Street Cry, Pride Of Dubai has emerged with juvenile colt Tanker, a sensational winner of the MRC Inglis Debutant Stakes-LR at Caulfield on Saturday.
Trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace at Caulfield, Tanker was bred and is raced in partnership with his breeder Ian Smith, owner/operator of Edinburgh Park near Taree. The colt was a $170,000 graduate from this year's Magic Millions Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast.