EVANS BACK AT FORMER BASE WITH STABLE WARHORSE

NEARLY 17 years have passed, but Terry Evans has never forgotten the moment!

It was June 24 2009 when the then Gosford and now Tuncurry-based trainer saddled $2.80 favorite Verrekeen for the Ian Craig Farewell Handicap (2100m) at his home track to mark the legendary Sydney broadcaster’s final call.

Verrekeen made it easy work for the finale of Craig’s outstanding career behind the microphone when she romped home by two and a half lengths on a ‘Heavy 10’ surface.

But there was a disappointing aftermath when stewards fined winning rider Hugh Bowman for saluting Craig as he passed the post, and relieved him of $300.

“How could I ever forget it,” Evans said today.

“It was without doubt a very special moment in my career.

“And Ian has never forgotten either.

“Whenever I catch up with him, he brings that moment up straight away.”

Evans will be back at his former base on Saturday for Gosford Race Club’s sixth running of The Coast Saturday stand-alone meeting.

Hugh Bowman (now successfully based in Hong Kong) won’t be there, but the Tuncurry trainer is looking forward to kicking off another campaign with his stable warhorse Sir Ravanelli.

The eight-year-old grey gelding, with nine wins already on the board, chases a career 10^th in the $200,000 Thunder Thousand Benchmark 78 Handicap (1000m).

And Evans says there is still racing life left in the “old fella”.

“Sir Ravanelli easily won an 1000m trial at home in early December, but I turned him out because the tracks were getting too firm,” he said.

“I decided to give him a break and wait for winter (seven of the gelding’s nine wins have been on soft or heavy tracks).

“He bolted in again in a 1005m trial at home on April 18, and is ready to go back to the races on Saturday.

“Sir Ravanelli is running the same sectional times he was three or four years ago.”

With the gelding’s regular partner Darryl McLellan now retired, Evans has called on talented apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald for Saturday’s assignment.

“Mollie rode him in his Tuncurry trial last December, and her 3kg allowance brings Sir Ravanelli in with 55.5kg,” he said.

“Obviously the favorite Compensation is going to be the horse to beat, and has drawn the rails.

“But I’ll be happy if Sir Ravanelli can finish two or three lengths from the winner, especially being his first start since last June.

“That will set him up nicely for the rest of his campaign when surely we are bound to strike some wet tracks.”

Evans ran Sir Ravanelli in the same race at the Gosford meeting 12 months ago, and has excused his seventh to Lulumon.

“He drew near the outside and raced three and four wide, yet was beaten just over two lengths,” he said.

“I had another look at the replay last night, and his run wasn’t bad at all.”

HOOFNOTE: With a reference to Hugh Bowman’s gesture to Ian Craig all those years ago, Verrekeen’s first foal was fittingly named Costly Salute.

However, the gelding didn’t emulate his dam (who won four races, including one at Warwick Farm) and was retired after two unplaced starts at Taree and Port Macquarie in 2014-15.

STORY JOHN CURTIS, MAY 7, 2026 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS