BUCHANAN’S HOPES FOR SHOT AT HOMETOWN CUP

WYONG trainer Kristen Buchanan would like to have a crack at her hometown Cup early next month with rejuvenated gelding Stylebender.

But that plan will hinge on the eight-year-old being able to start at Royal Randwick on Saturday – and running well.

Buchanan, last season’s leading Wyong trainer, has done a fantastic job with Stylebender, who is an acceptor for the Benchmark 78 Handicap (2400m), and Jay Ford is booked for the mount.

Randwick this afternoon held a “Heavy 10” rating following so much rain this week, but Buchanan isn’t concerned with the conditions provided the meeting goes ahead.

“He handles the heavy ground, and it’s going to be a slog over the 2400m,” she said today.

“Unfortunately, Stylebender missed out on a similar race at Randwick a fortnight ago when the meeting was rained out.

“Whilst he hasn’t raced for a month, that doesn’t worry me.

“He is a very clean-winded horse.

“I would love to run him in the Wyong Cup in a couple of weeks, but he needs to race on Saturday.

“If that doesn’t happen, I will have to go to Plan B, but I don’t know what Plan B is at present.”

The $250,000 Listed Wyong Gold Cup (2100m) will be run on Friday, September 5.

Buchanan was given Stylebender to train late in his career, after he was sold to dissolve a partnership following an unplaced run at Goulburn in June 2023.

She gave him a spell, only to discover when she put him into work that he had a wind infirmity and required an operation to enable him to breathe properly.

She has now win five races with him; the latest at Kembla Grange on July 26 when he overcame the outside barrier in a field of 11 to take a Benchmark 64 Handicap (2000m).

Stylebender had previously scored over 2000m at Wyong on June 8 and 1890m at Newcastle on June 28 (on a heavy track) before finishing runner-up in the Grafton Cup Prelude (2230m) on July 6.

Buchanan’s last Wyong Cup runner was Jazzland, who ran eighth to Paths Of Glory in 2020.

He had won the South Grafton Cup (1600m) and run third in the Taree Cup (2000m) leading up to the Wyong Cup.

Story John Curtis, August 21, 2025