BARTLEY’S HIT AND RUN QUEENSLAND TRIP PAYS OFF
WHEN Dusty Bay won easily at Eagle Farm on Saturday, few people probably knew the lengths Tracey Bartley went to in achieving such a result.
Dusty Bay ($7.50), given a great ride by Daniel Moor, always looked the winner and romped away to score in resounding fashion.
Wyong trainer Bartley dually accepted with the Sandbar four-year-old in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens, and a Class 6 Handicap (1600m) up north.
When Dusty Bay drew awkwardly at Rosehill and much better at Eagle Farm in a smaller field, his mind was made up.
But that was the easy part, as Bartley explained to ProvincialRacingNSW en route back to Wyong after a lengthy but successful venture.
“I tried to book a truck earlier in the week should we decide to head to Brisbane,” he said.
“But I couldn’t get one.
“So the only option was to take him myself.
“After I won a race with Stromatolite (another of the Sandbar progeny which races in the same Kooringal Stud bottle green and white colours), I headed home to prepare for the Brisbane trip.”
Bartley left at 8.30pm that night and drove to Brisbane, taking Dusty Bay in the float behind, to trainer Barry Lockwood’s stables.
“Barry is always very helpful whenever I take a horse to race in Brisbane,” he said.
“Dusty Bay handled the trip really well, and was never going to lose yesterday once he jumped and settled into a nice spot midfield on his own.
“It was great to see him win in the manner he did.”
Dusty Bay let loose in the straight and quickly put the issue beyond doubt.
He had nearly three lengths to spare from runner-up Atmosphere ($21), with $2.60 favorite Sir Winnie fading to fifth after doing some early work to sit second.
Dusty Bay has now three of his 22 starts – and two of them have been in different states.
He won a midweek Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Warwick Farm in August when ridden by last week’s Group 1 Epsom Handicap jockey, apprentice Siena Grima.
Dusty Bay has raced well since including a previous start fifth to Puntin in the Big Dance Eligibility Dubbo Gold Cup (1600m) a fortnight ago, when he jumped from the outside barrier in a field of 13 and carried 1kg over his allotted 54kg.
Bartley brought the gelding home today with another target in mind – but this time he won’t have to travel as far.
He is keen to run Dusty Bay in the $500,000 Four Pillars (1500m) at Royal Randwick on October 31.
Bartley knows what it takes to win the Four Pillars, having won it five years ago with $15 chance Kiss Sum (Jason Collett).
Unfortunately, Dusty Bay’s stablemate Cuban Cigar ($2.35 favorite) wasn’t able to follow up at Coonamble yesterday.
He got well back and was a late closing third to $15 chance Green Run (Jenny Duggan) in the Big Dance Eligibility Coonamble Cup (1600m).
. HOOFNOTE: Bartley barely had time to draw breath and watch Cuban Cigar on TV when he will be on the road again tomorrow, this time to Tamworth.
He runs dual acceptor What A Gent (Clayton Gallagher) in the Maiden Plate (1400m).
STORY JOHN CURTIS, OCTOBER 12, 2026 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS
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