BUCHANAN’S FIVE-WIN HAUL WITH STYLEBENDER EARNS DESERVED PRAISE

TO say Kristen Buchanan has done a great job with Stylebender would not be giving her enough credit.

It’s not an easy assignment to win races with a gelding when you’re given him to train later in his career and subsequently find out he was a “Grade 5 roarer (a wind infirmity) and required an operation to enable him to breathe better.

But that’s exactly what Wyong’s Buchanan has achieved with the soon to be eight-year-old, and now she is hoping he might gain a start in her hometown Cup.

The $250,000 Listed Wyong Gold Cup (2100m) – which carries Big Dance eligibility – will be run on Friday, September 5.

“Stylebender is a very gutsy horse and special to our stable,” Buchanan said today.

“I’ve got no doubt he can win in town. His only unplaced run in seven starts this preparation was at Canterbury over 1900m in late May when he got stuck in the ruck and never got clear running.

“He handles all types of tracks and can race up front or from behind.”

Stylebender won his fifth race for Buchanan in a Benchmark 64 Handicap (2200m) at Kembla Grange yesterday – and the only surprising part about his victory was his starting price ($13).

Stylebender had been in good form, and was narrowly beaten at his previous start in the Grafton Cup Prelude (2230m) on July 6.

A win would have clinched him a start in the $200,000 Listed Grafton Cup (2350m) 11 days later, but his trainer wasn’t too disappointed he missed that race.

“His benchmark rating would have gone up had he won, and most likely ruled him out of the Kembla Grange race,” Buchanan said.

“I was really surprised that Stylebender was at double figure odds yesterday as Matthew Dunn’s horse Full Of Sincerity finished behind him at Grafton, and won at Royal Randwick earlier yesterday.”

Buchanan praised Stylebender’s apprentice Bronte Simpson for her display on the seven-year-old, who jumped from the outside barrier in a field of 11.

“Bronte executed the ride perfectly; as good as any senior rider,” she said.

Simpson got the gelding across to sit outside Newcastle four-year-old Justifiably ($17) before edging to the front 1400m out.

She got Stylebender to give a good “kick” in the straight and he held too big a margin for stablemates Twilight Elegance ($2.80), who got buried away in the ruck before getting out late, and Maire De Paris ($7.50), to run him down.

Ironically, the runner-up was ridden by fellow apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald, who had been aboard Stylebender at Grafton.

Buchanan got Stylebender when he was sold to dissolve a partnership after he ran seventh at Goulburn in June 2023, then gave him a spell.

It was when he was put back into work that she discovered his breathing problem, and had a “dreaded” phone call to make to advise his owner that he required an operation if he was to continue his racing career.

I’ll look at the programs, and he may have to go to town for his next start,” Buchanan said.

“But I would love to be able to run him in the Wyong Cup.”

Buchanan finished eighth with Jazzland in her hometown Cup five years ago after he had won the South Grafton Cup (1600m) that year and finished sixth and third respectively in the Coffs Harbour and Taree Cups.

Coincidentally, Jazzland also was runner-up in the 2019 Grafton Cup Prelude.

Stylebender clearly is special to his trainer – and so too his young rider Bronte Simpson.

“He can be a bit quirky, but I won’t forget him,” she said today.

“Stylebender has given me my first winner (at her debut ride at Muswellbrook on May 2) and my first provincial winner.”

Simpson, who has now ridden eight winners, bounced back quickly from her first day of provincial riding at her home track only two days earlier.

She received a suspension – which takes effect on Friday – from RacingNSW stewards for a careless riding charge on her master Sara Ryan’s How Much Better in the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1600m).

Simpson will remain with Ryan when the latter shortly finishes her six-year stint with Domeland, and branches out as a public trainer at Wyong.

. HOOFNOTE: Stylebender’s Kembla Grange performance took Buchanan to 24 wins for the season, one ahead of Sara Ryan, with Kim Waugh on 22 and Damien Lane 21 – as she bids for the title of leading Wyong trainer in 2024-25.

Story John Curtis, July 27, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos