A MAIDEN HOME TRACK WIN WHICH MEANT SO MUCH TO MANY

WINNING a Provincial Maiden Handicap on the surface might not appear anything above the ordinary.

But delve deeper and it soon becomes clear that Gosford trainer Kylie Gavenlock’s breakthrough triumph with four-year-old mare Murphilly on her home track yesterday was far from an ordinary result.

Indeed it was pretty special.

After settling last of the seven runners, jockey Grant Buckley took the Super Maiden Handicap (1600m) into his own keeping leaving the 400m when he got Murphilly ($7) away from the inside and began a sweeping run around the field which carried her to a runaway victory.

The decisive move left the daughter of Churchill’s rivals gasping. Murphilly had nearly four lengths to spare at the post from the Ciaron Maher pair, $2.60 favorite Pierro Lad and Royal Princess ($4.80).

It was Murphilly’s 13^th start, but luck had nothing to do with her putting that often elusive first win on the board.

To say the mare has been a work in progress for Gavenlock and her staff wouldn’t even be close to telling the truth.

“Murphilly has been very difficult,” the experienced trainer said this morning.

“To put it bluntly, she has been a real b……

“Murphilly has been an angry mare with a mind of her own.

“I had to buy a new float because she didn’t like the partitions in the three-horse float.

“Up until recently she has had to be man handled into the starting stalls (RacingNSW stewards placed a warning on her when she proved difficult to load at Newcastle in October last year).

“Ironically, once she is in the barriers she is bomb proof.

“Our daughter Skye has done a lot of work with Murphilly, and deserves much credit.

“The mare drew the inside barrier yesterday and went in first.”

Gavenlock was quick to also praise her long-serving foreman Adam Dowling, who has been with her for 30 years, and all her staff.

“Everyone has put in a tremendous amount of work into this mare, and we would not have achieved yesterday’s result without them,” she said.

“Murphilly has been difficult in all areas, and I am very appreciative of their efforts.”

Gavenlock used all her vast experience to prepare the mare for yesterday’s race after giving her two starts over shorter distances (1000m at Hawkesbury on October 23 and 1200m at home on November 11) resuming from a break (she had been placed over 1600m and 2100m at her previous campaign).

“I always felt Murphilly wanted a ‘mile’ (1600m), but I had to get her head right first,” she said.

“To see her win in the manner she did was very pleasing given all the work which has been put into her.

“Whether she can go on and win over a further distance than that I’m not sure.”

Whilst Gavenlock and her team deservedly earned the plaudits for putting in the hard yards to win a race with the mare, that is also only part of the Murphilly story.

“The mare was bred in North Queensland by Isla Runciman, who is a wonderful horsewoman and very well known in the Upper Hunter,” Gavenlock explained.

“Isla likes to name her horses after friends who have passed on.

“In this case, it was Damien Murphy, who worked at Coolmore.

“So when this mare was born, Isla named her Murphilly.”

Gavenlock’s connection with Runciman and another well-known Hunter identity, Murphilly’s managing part-owner Wayne Bedggood (Cressfield Stud) traces back to another mare she previously trained.

“Du Jour Idea (by Bull Polint) had three starts (one at Lismore and the other two in south-east Queensland) and was unplaced in all of them, and Wayne suggested to Isla that she should give her to me to find out if she was any good,” Gavenlock explained.

“I won first-up with her at Gosford in January 2023 at 125-1, and then she ran third and fourth in stronger class.

“Sadly she broke a leg in a track gallop and had to be put down.”

. HOOFNOTE: Murphilly’s dam Forever Crazy also produced the three times metropolitan winner (twice Listed) Flying Crazy.

STORY JOHN CURTIS, NOVEMBER 23, 2025 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS