Veteran Canberra conditioner Keith Dryden secured the biggest win of his 40-odd year training career when Handle The Truth won the second running of the $1.3 million The Kosciuszko race, part of The Everest extravaganza race meeting at Randwick on Saturday.
"This is the biggest prizemoney I've ever won," Dryden said after the race.
Run under special conditions, The Kosciuszko is open only to country and for the first time ACT trained horses who gained entry via invitation, connections then negotiating with slot winners of a TAB conducted sweepstakes draw.
Handle The Truth was selected by slot holder Shellharbour TAB Punters Club, a group of punters led by Albert Tory.
A four-year-old gelding by Widden Stud's Star Witness, Handle The Truth was bred and is raced in partnership by Sydney based Laurel Oak Bloodstock, which is headed by Jill and Louis Mihalyka.
They were beaming after the race, along with Kerry and Glen Fraser, who were among the excited contingent of owners and supporters.
According to Louis, Handle The Truth had been a six or seven-year plan.
"We raced his dam (Assertively) and she was terribly slow, but we decided to keep her to breed from and to put to Star Witness as it was a special mating," he said.
"Her first foal had some issues, and we sold him, and he (Handle The Truth) is the next foal."
The Jenny Graham, Port Macquarie trained favourite Victorem (by I Am Invincible) and Burnie Kelly, Scone, prepared Bobbing, were fast finishing for second and third respectively.
This year's Country Championships Final winner, the Queanbeyan prepared Noble Boy (Bon Hoffa), was fourth, while Scone gelding Star Boy (Pluck) was fifth.
The stud value of three-year-old Yes Yes Yes soared to great heights after the three-year-old stormed home to take the $14 million highlight, The Everest.
The excited owners were jumping for joy, the win is a triumph for Coolmore Stud's Australian principal, Tom Magnier, who is among the part-owners, and who stands the colt's sire Rubick.
By the stud's retired Encosta de Lago, Rubick was the busiest sire in 2018, covering 263 mares but at the smaller fee of $17,600 to his current $38,500.
While Yes Yes Yes has won the heralded richest sprint race of the world, it should be noted that the colt's immediate pedigree has strong country connections via his dam Sin Sin Sin (by former Upper Hunter Valley shuttle horse Fantastic Light) who won the central-western districts juvenile feature, Wellington Boot.
Sin Sin Sin - along with a host of other successful family members including stakes winners Flaming Hot and Hot As Hell - was bred by the late John and Denise Cobcroft, who left a legacy of talented gallopers, bred from their Willow Tree located property "Parraweena".
Goulburn based twin training partnership sisters Emma and Lucy Longmire, scored the biggest win of their careers when their 20-1 shot, Feel The Knight, won the $100,000 TAB Highway Handicap earlier at the meet.
A host of excited connections surrounded Emma Longmire (sister Lucy was absent) after the win, including Aris Giotas from Goulburn, and Feel The Knight's breeder and part-owner Fiona Mylan who stands the four-year-old gelding's sire Knight Exemplar at the Southern Highlands property Brisbane Meadows.
Belonging to the second small crop of foals by Knight Exemplar, Feel The Knight has won three of five starts.
Glorious daughters
Connections of broodmare Glorious Lady - a triple winning daughter of former Queensland shuttler King's Theatre - have been "in the money" with two of her progeny racing over recent weeks.
While a winner of seven races previously, Lady Evelyn - a six-year-old daughter of Glorious Lady and veteran Victorian sire Reset - added the Tuncurry-Forster Gold Cup (2100 metres) five weeks ago, then franked her ability with another win in the Port Macquarie Cup Prelude over 1800 metres late last month.
Connections had further success in between these wins when Glorious Lady's three-year-old daughter, Ladylovestogamble, won at her second appearance at Newcastle, after finishing third on debut.
Trained at Newcastle by Jason Deamer, Lady Evelyn then backed up her consistency when finishing fourth to the Randwick trained favourite Rapido Chaparro in the recent $200,000 Port Macquarie Cup.
Both horses were bred and raced in partnership with Graham Smith, Matthew Dugan of the Central Coast, Allan Chiswick of Nabiac and Dennis and Denna McConnell, Penrith.
