BOSS AND HIS APPRENTICE BOTH ENJOY XMAS SUCCESS

THE master and his apprentice were both Boxing Day winners – but on different tracks.

Hawkesbury’s leading trainer Brad Widdup produced a winning debutante on Newcastle’s inner Beaumont track, whilst Poppie Gorton ventured a little further afield to win a race at Quirindi.

Widdup made it 30 wins for the season when newcomer Levelling Up ($4.40) got his career off to a flyer, and Gorton rode her sixth winner (and first for an outside stable).

Levelling Up, ridden by Christian Reith, always travelled as though he would be in the finish to the Provincial 3YO Maiden Plate (1200m).

He had a battle with another debutante and $3 favorite Funshow, and did best to score nicely.

Widdup prepares Levelling Up for a syndicate headed by former champion Hong Kong trainer John Moore and son George, who paid $110,000 for him as a 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling.

The two placegetters had opposed each other in a Gosford 1000m trial on December 9 when Funshow was runner-up and Levelling Up finished seventh.

However, the latter was crammed up on the inside without clear galloping room and wasn’t able to be tested.

“He was hidden in the trial but not on purpose,” Widdup said this evening.

“I wanted him to have a good trial, but the way things turned out it didn’t eventuate.

“Levelling Up is a young horse I like, but was getting frustrated I couldn’t get him to the races before now.

“He needed time, and we have just had to be patient.

“His first trial was 12 months ago, and then he trialled twice in autumn before going out again.”

The three-year-old son of Maurice is not the only horse Widdup prepares for the internationally-known Moore.

He also has a Bivouac two-year-old for the Australian expat.

Gorton travelled to the Quirindi non-TAB fixture for several rides, and was successful on Via Rose ($2.80) for Gunnedah trainer Sally Torrens.

Via Rose, a six-year-old mare by Dissident, got home narrowly in the Benchmark 50

Handicap (1450m) against her own sex, with the young Hawkesbury apprentice’s 3kg claim a deciding factor.

Via Rose carried 55.5kg, 4kg less than runner-up Pop Quiz ($6).

Meanwhile, Widdup confirmed hat-trick seeker Hyperbolic will bypass Royal Randwick tomorrow to contest the $300,000 Group 3 Belle of the Turf Stakes (1600m) at Gosford on Sunday.

With Hyperbolic an absentee from headquarters, he will rely on last start Wyong winner Confess Our Dreams in the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1200m) for fillies and mares.

Apprentice Siena Grima rode Confess Our Dreams in her Wyong victory, and retains the ride, lessening the mare’s 60.5kg handicap by 3kg.

. Provincial trainers Nathan Doyle (Newcastle) and Kim Waugh (Wyong) shared the honours in the CG&E Benchmark 64 Handicap (1300m) at the Beaumont meeting.

The judge could not separate Doyle’s Calstar ($3.60) and Waugh’s Bend The Knee ($8.50).

Doyle’s apprentice Shannen Llewellyn continued her successful run of late by partnering Calstar, and champion provincial jockey Keagan Latham rode Bend The Knee.

Newcastle’s Paul Perry rounded off the meeting by winning the closer with Cosy Corner ($4.60).

Ridden by apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald, Cosy Corner defeated Wyong pair, Tracey Bartley’s $2.15 favorite Cuban Cigar and John Cooper’s Listins Lass ($6.50).

Story John Curtis, December 26, 2025