Hawkesbury hosts provincial champs with large purse

Leading Kembla Grange conditioner Gwenda Markwell took home the thick end of the $150,000 purse when Gemmahra was convincingly booted home by Winona Costin in the Qualifier to guarantee a start in the $500,000 Provincial Championship Final at Randwick next month.

A five-year-old Choisir mare bred and raced by Ross Williams of the Gold Coast, Gemmahra defeated the well-supported local pair Diva Bella and Grace Bay, which were prepared by former successful Hawkesbury based hoop Claire Lever, the latter placegetter ridden by husband Chad.

The David Payne, Rosehill, trained War Baron took the Jennifer Churchill Memorial Class One Handicap.

By former Coolmore Stud shuttler Declaration Of War, War Baron was a $50,000 purchase for his trainer at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. The four-year-old gelding was bred and sold by Garry and Jo Brilley of Wildes Meadow in the Southern Highlands. War Baron's dam - Pink Ice (by US bred Gone West stallion Mugharreb), is also represented with a home-bred and Les Bridge trained juvenile Roulin (by Frosted), as well as foaling a colt last season by Arrowfield Stud's Irish bred shuttler Shalaa.

War Baron's win gave his trainer a successful double after earlier winning with three-year-old filly Obvious Step. By Queensland based sire Sidestep, Obvious Step was one of three winners partnered by the Irish born apprentice Tom Sherry.

The late Jennifer Churchill was not only a local Hawkesbury identity, and a member of the HRC and the track headquartered Australian Thoroughbred Breeders Club, she was a widely respected Thoroughbred scribe and pedigree expert, and who worked from her Kurrajong Heights home.

As well as writing for several specialised publications including The Land, Jenny combined with the team of The Australian Bloodhorse Review - now known as "Bluebloods", to become the founding editor of Stallions, a vital annual national register since 1989.

Her love of pedigrees also extended to a global stallion book, and was principle-co-editor of "Great Thoroughbred Sires of the World" which was published in 2006.

In more recent times, Jenny began on her latest project of documenting her next book "Great Thoroughbred Sires of Australia and New Zealand."

However, such was Jenny's research it became a massive undertaking of its publishing, and due to the shuttle stallion era many of these horses included leading northern hemisphere bred sires, so the publisher Andrew Reichard - of "Bluebloods", selected 26 influential sires for an interim volume "Update, The Modern Era".

This important and illustrated volume is a must for an enthusiast's Thoroughbred library and can be sourced via Bluebloods.

BETTY Shepherd - a well-known and respected Thoroughbred industry participant of Scone, passed away in late January in her long-time Upper Hunter Valley home town, aged 89.

Belonging to the earliest group of Australia's woman trainers in the early 1950s, Betty pushed the boundaries and took on the men at the 1966 spring feature races in Melbourne with her famous gelding Trevors, a horse who was originally prepared by her husband and trainer Archie.

She became the first female trainer to have a starter in the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups.

While finishing 14th of 22 runners in the 1966 Melbourne Cup, Trevors had previously finished fourth in the Caulfield Cup - a Cup double that was won by Tommy Smith's mighty galloper Galilee.

Running down the track in Tobin Bronze's MVRC W S Cox Plate, Trevors was also placed third in the Hotham Handicap (today known as the Lexus Handicap) at Flemington to Aveniam.

In the 1960s only a rare few women were registered with training licences.

By the imported Good Brandy, Trevors earned his 1966 Melbourne campaign, following his win in the STC Chelmsford Stakes, then a second in the AJC Metropolitan Handicap.

The Shepherds lived in town, and from a few adjacent yards to their home they prepared their racehorses.